Medabots: Open Ring
by Markal
Summary: A new medafighter steps into the arena, as Ikki and other fellow medafighters seek to unravel the mystery of a strange figure attempting to gain the secrets of Medabot Corp.
1. Chapter 1: Consequences

**STANDARD DISCLAIMER: ** I do not own Medabots, Medarot, nor anything related to the trademark. All rights, permissions, official characters, and concepts are properties of Imagineer Co. and Natsume.   


**Medabots: Open Ring**   
  


**Chapter I : Consequences**

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_"Machinery is often misunderstood. It may not be entirely alive, but then again, it isn't entirely brainless either."_   
**_- Robots for Cynics_**

  
  
  
  
  
  
  


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"Granbeetle! Submachine gun!" 

A flashing volley of high-velocity slugs shot and crackled across the asphalt pavement of the high school exercise yard as high-school student Kasumi registered his commands to his KBT-type medabot through his medawatch. Nodding in approval as Granbeetle shot with dead-eye aim at the array of practice targets, the blue-haired, bespectacled teenage boy suddenly turned as he heard a voice shout a greeting behind him. 

"Hey, Kasumi!!" 

Kasumi turned and saw Siden, a brown-haired, self-styled classmate waving to him from a nearby hallway. Signaling to Granbeetle to temporarily halt the training exercise, he turned back to Siden and grinned as he stepped forward out of the shadows. Siden looked at the array of targets and gave a grunt of affirmation. 

"Five up, five down. Not bad, Kasumi. Not bad at all. I think you're almost ready for the Robattle World Cup." 

Kasumi looked at the ground in an embarrassed sort of way. "Not really... I'm just practicing and warming up..." 

Siden was a rich and a self-styled rebel of a schoolboy who had arrived to Kasumi's high school only about a year before. Always wearing the latest in boys' fashions, he was a charismatic lady-killer and often drew away from wearing the typical school uniform which consisted of a blue tie, dress shirt, and pants for boys or skirts for girls. 

Siden looked at the trees swaying in the wind, then looked at Kasumi with a serious expression. "Kasumi, I'm a little curious though... Do you think that you're really able to take on the World Cup this year? There's a lot of competition for this particular tourney..." 

"Yeah? Like what?" 

"Well, like, Victor from Kenya, several other international medafighter champions, not to mention the Phantom Medafighter, the Screws gang, Ikki Tenryou himself... Not to mention, Fubuki, Mizore, Goutetsu, and I are also going to be in this competition. Do you feel confident enough about taking on all of us?" 

Kasumi merely shrugged. "Hey, what difference does it make if we win or lose in this contest? It's just a game, isn't it?" 

Siden shook his head and looked up at the clock tower of the high school. "It's not that easy anymore, Kasumi. Two years ago I would have said that maybe it WAS just a game, but now..." He brushed his hair out of his eyes and stared at the array of fallen practice targets behind Granbeetle. "It's not that simple anymore. You remember what we saw back at CLUSTER-001." 

Kasumi nodded. "Well, what can I say? It was just a bunch of errors..." 

Siden gave a sideways glance of mild reproach. "It's not just a bunch of errors. You saw what some of those Robattle-Research personnel were doing. Medabots aren't just being made as children's toys anymore, Kasumi. They're starting to become war material." He chuckled and his old familiar grin replaced the serious expression that had been on his face a moment before. "Speaking of war material, how's Kaiserbeetle doing? Still trying to shoot up half the windows in town?" 

Kasumi groaned as he remembered the other KBT-type medabot he worked with. "Not as bad as before. He's actually made a lot of progress. Of course, his temper and his destructive tendencies still need a bit of fine-tuning, but... Who knows, someday he might become a robattler." 

Siden nodded. "Just be careful, Kasumi. I didn't let you have ownership of Kaiserbeetle for nothing, you know. I let you have him with the confidence that you'd take better care of him than I could. If he gets out of hand..." 

Kasumi nodded in turn. "I know, I know... It won't be pretty." 

The silence was suddenly broken by the voice of a girl. "Hey, Kasumi!! Don't you know we have homework to do!!? Hurry up!!" 

Siden grinned as he heard Kasumi groan again. "Oh no... Hiyori..." Hiyori was Kasumi's female childhood friend, a tomboy, and another classmate. Although Kasumi was well-known in handling medabots in a robattle, one thing that he had continual trouble with was girls, even with all the experiences he'd gone through on CLUSTER-001. 

Hiyori continued to stand out on the sidewalk, glaring at Kasumi and signaling for him to hurry up. Kasumi finally grabbed his book bag and ran towards the brown-haired girl with Granbeetle in tow. 

Siden chuckled again as he walked back towards the classrooms, the leaves making echoing scratching noises as they slid across the asphalt pavement.   


=====   


Young 15 year old Kaito Shingawa kicked the pebbles on the cement street as he walked down the avenue towards home, followed by his school friend Nitane. He sighed as he shifted the weight of his book bag from one shoulder to the other. 

Turning a corner, Kaito and Nitane paused for a moment to stare into the glass window of the local 24-hour hopmart, their reflection mirroring their respective expressions of longing and boredom simultaneously. 

Kaito stared at the displays of medals, medaparts and medawatches, all the while absently tracing an aimless path along the glass storefront with his forefinger. Nitane finally let out his breath in an exhalation of annoyance and sharply turned to Kaito. 

"Why the hell do you keep staring that way at the hopmart window? You know your parents can't afford to buy or maintain a medabot for you!" 

Kaito sighed again as he dropped the weight of his book bag. "I know, I know... I just... I really want to be a medafighter! I don't care what my parents want me to be; I just want to robattle! It's not that they're dumb or anything, or that being a lawyer is a bad job, it's just that..." 

Nitane rolled his eyes as he finished Kaito's sentence. "It's boring. I know, I know, Kaito... I've heard it over a million times by now. You don't need to stare at the window every day... It's not going to get you any closer to getting a medabot of your own, you know..." 

Medabots. Medarot. The names were somewhat different, but they were the same. Medarot in Japan, "Medabots" in America and any other English-speaking country, the craze had already dominated itself over the world several years before. A brilliant professor of cybernetics named Hushi had first theorized the "Medarot System", where the computerized personality and brain of the droid were contained inside a small, hexagonal chips he dubbed "medals", leaving a universal niche in a robotic body, consisting of a skeleton called a "Tin-Pet" and interchangeable appendages he called "meda-parts", that could admit and utilize almost any "medal", so long as they were created according to the matching template and format. Working on his theories, a young fellow colleague by the name of Aki had since then mastered the theory of mass-production of medabots, and put it into the practice of home usage, making better and better medabot medals and meda-parts. 

Since then, Medabots had become big business, and were often declared the finest and greatest piece of technology since the personal computer had first made its debut so many decades earlier. They were used for competitive games, including races and battles, as well as home maintenance assistance and handling of chores. An engineering marvel. A truly fancy and hi-tech piece of technology. 

And, much like any other fancy piece of technology, they were still expensive to buy, and expensive to maintain. 

Kaito swore and kicked another pebble. Nitane followed the pebble's trajectory with his eyes, then turned to his friend. "Why do you want a medarot so badly? Is it THAT important to you?" 

Kaito merely grumbled and turned to the traffic signpost in front of the two. "It's not something you would understand. But, yes, it IS important."   
The dark-brown haired young teen had never mentioned to any of his friends, not even Nitane, about his dreams of becoming the world's top medafighter; about winning every regional and world championship battle. But then, being a medafighter was often a difficult and rather risky occupation. 

Being a medafighter took several distinct talents, including strategy, intuition, quick-thinking-ability, a certain degree of compassion for the medabot that the medafighter worked with, and a deep understanding of how the robattle system and various medapart and medal combinations worked. Lacking in even one of them was often bad news. 

And yet, for the few medafighters that met with success, the rewards and benefits that came with the victories were unmatched by anything else. 

The problem for potential medafighter hopefuls like Kaito lay in the fact that as further advancements in medapart technology and medal systems were made, older medabot combinations of parts and medals became outdated, resulting in harder opportunities for new medafighters to win victories with older and cheaper medapart systems and medals. 

Kaito sighed and kicked a third pebble. 

"What seems to be the trouble, kids?" 

A kindly-looking, bearded man with scruffy grey hair who was apparently the proprietor stepped out of the hopmart. Kaito stared at the stones on the pavement as he tried to splutter an explanation. Nitane spoke up. 

"My friend here seems to have a problem coming to terms with the fact that his family is unable to afford a medabot. I keep trying to tell him, but..." The chubby, black-haired teenager threw up his hands in exasperation as he looked up to the sky. 

The man scratched his chin and looked at Kaito. "Your name?" 

"Shingawa Kaito. My friend here is Matori Nitane." 

The elderly man merely smiled understandingly at Kaito and gestured to him. "Come here, young one. I want to show you something in my shop..." 

Kaito looked at Nitane with an expression of bewilderment. Nitane merely shrugged and indicated to Kaito to go and follow him inside. 

When the two stepped into the shop, the man was waiting for them behind the counter. Standing next to him was a battered-looking GWF-type medabot that still had a vague but detectable aura of power about it. The shopkeeper smiled at the two again and spoke up. 

"Well, both of you young whippersnappers must be wondering why I brought you two in here. Now, I'm sure that both of you, especially you, Kaito, must be bristling with questions. But first, I'd like to ask both of you a question." 

Turning to a TV monitor nearby, he motioned to the medabot to switch on the power. The screen flickered on and displayed some footage of a robattle. 

The man turned to the two as they stared at the screen, the footage showing powerful explosions and smoke floating around the arena, with medafighters yelling commands into their medawatches, while ranged ordnance and melee weapons clashed in the air. 

"Do you have any idea what it takes to be a medafighter?" 

Kaito suddenly lost his focus on the TV screen and looked at the shopkeeper with a questioning stare. The shopkeeper returned his stare with a hard, analyzing look. "No, sir..." 

The shopkeeper nodded. "And well you don't. I'm sure that neither of you have what it takes at this moment to even compete in a basic robattle, let alone the World Championships." He indicated the TV screen. "That's me right there on the left. Ten years ago." 

Kaito stammered as he tried to register the information. "T-ten years ago!?" 

Nitane looked at the shopkeeper with a suspicious glance. "Just how old of a geezer are you anyway?" 

The shopkeeper gave a sharp slap to Nitane's collarbone, sending him gasping to the floor. "Watch the way you speak with your elders, sonny boy. I've robattled for ten years ever since the technology first came out on the market, and I've been playing ever since until two years ago." 

Kaito looked at the battered GWF-type medabot. "Why did you quit?" 

The shopkeeper shrugged. "Got tired. Being a medafighter takes a lot of energy, and I didn't have enough to keep up with it. So me and ol' Grayfang here quit when we got a little too old for it. The sport's for young kids nowadays. Too much smoke and too many guns. Plus, new medaparts kept coming out on the market all the time, and we couldn't keep up." 

Kaito turned to the shopkeeper. "So why did you bring us in here?" 

The shopkeeper gave him a hard look. "You look like the type of guy who really wants to get into the medafighting business. I'll tell you what. I'll teach you what I know about being a medafighter, and at the end of three weeks, if you feel like it isn't the type of future you want to pursue, then I'll stop the lessons. If you can show me that you've got what it takes to being a medafighter, I'll continue the lessons and give you a medabot of your own. What do you think?" 

Kaito's eyes lit up. "It's a deal! When do we start?" 

The shopkeeper held up a hand, motioning for Kaito to pause for a bit. "Hold on a second. You've got to think about this carefully. I'm not going to go easy on you, son, and being a medafighter ain't easy. I want you to think about this for a moment." 

Kaito shook his head. "No, this IS what I want to do! So, just when do we start?" 

The shopkeeper sighed and muttered something about the impulsiveness of teenage boys before answering Kaito's question. "Tomorrow. First thing after you've gotten your homework done. I don't want you ditching classes while you learn to be a medafighter. Deal?" 

"Deal!" 

"Good. Now get yourselves on home before your parents see fit to blow a capillary vein. I've no intention of being labelled a generator of juvenile delinquents." 

As Kaito walked out the door, he turned to the shopkeeper. "Is there any name by which I should call you?" 

The shopkeeper smiled. "Just call me Tarou."   


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"But Dad!" 

"No buts, son. I don't want you hanging around that hopmart." 

"Why?" Kaito was fit to be tied. Having come home in high spirits after hearing the shopkeeper's words, he had suddenly plunged into frustration after his parents rejected the idea after hearing what he had said. 

His father sighed. "The reason is, son, we just want what's best for you. Being a medafighter is dangerous business, and simply being involved with medabots is dangerous in itself." 

"How in the world can it be dangerous?" 

Kaito's father sighed again and tried to be patient with his impulsive son. "The reason is, your uncle, who is my brother, went into the business of developing new medabot technology. True, the pay is good, but it was always dangerous work from him. Why, just last month he got several death threats from organizations that he refused to have dealings with. 

Kaito's mother nodded in agreement. "It's very dangerous for you, son. It's not that we have anything against medabots. We're very sure that they're safe enough in themselves, but it's the implications and consequences that we're concerned about." 

Kaito snorted in contempt. "That's impossible! How can that be? They're made for kids! Even students younger than I am have them!" 

Kaito's father held up a hand for silence. "As I've mentioned to you before, Kaito, we cannot afford one anyway. So as I've said, no more is to be said on the matter." He watched as his young son stormed up the stairs to his room in frustration and anger. After a few moments' silence, the two parents looked askance at eachother.   


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"Aw, damnit!! Late again!" 

Ikki Tenryou cursed as the bell rang before he could reach the school's gates. Metabee, his KBT-type medabot, merely gave a nonchalant shrug as he regarded the expression of annoyance and exasperation on his partner's face. 

"Your loss, man. Looks like you're gonna have to serve some after-school detention again." 

Ikki stared up at the ivy-covered walls of the schoolgrounds. "Not if I can help it. I'm gonna get to that classroom if it kills me!" Scrambling up the ivy, the black-haired teenager managed to vault ungracefully over the side followed by Metabee and landed on his backside, grunting as he rubbed his sore bottom. "Damn, I'm going to have to find a better way of sneaking next time." 

"Going somewhere, Ikki Tenryou?" Ikki turned sharply around as he came face to face with the Riverview High schoolmaster. Ikki stammered for a response, but found no need to as the principal waved him away. "No need to respond. Why, when I was young, I had problems getting to school on time, so..." 

Ikki and Metabee didn't stick around to listen to another one of the principal's anecdotes, and ran off in the direction of his classroom. 

Soon managing to sneak inside without too much hassle, Ikki set his book bag down on his desk and exhaled sharply in relief. 

"Hey, Ikki! You've been late again, haven't ya?" 

Ikki grinned as he recognized the voice of Erika, one of his childhood friends. Sporting pink over-alls, short brown hair, and an ever-present camera, she was the school's resident reporter and one of the top muckrakers dealing with medabots. Brass, Erika's SLR-type medabot, was following in her wake. 

"Hey, Erika... Yeah, I did get in somewhat late again... Thanks to a certain KBT-type medabot I happen to know," muttered Ikki, glaring at Metabee. 

Metabee merely waved his hands in the air in denial. "Hey, I had nothing to do with it. If you hadn't slipped on that bar of soap and fallen face-first into the toilet bowl..." 

Ikki blew up. "I TOLD you not to say anything about that METABEE!!!" 

Metabee merely grinned. "Oops, my bad..." 

Erika and Brass giggled as Ikki started to chase Metabee around the classroom, knocking over book bags, desks, chairs, and easels. The sudden entrance of the classroom teacher brought the madcap chase to a grindin halt. 

"MR. TENRYOU!!" 

"Meep!" 

The teacher was standing in front of her desk with a pointer in one hand and a briefcase in the other, glaring at the two who still stood in an attitude of pursuit. Ikki gulped, and then meekly walked back to his desk. 

The teacher smiled for a moment, then cleared her throat. "Thank you, Mr. Tenryou. Now, does anyone else wish to interfere with the learning process today?" 

There was no need for further reminders as the rest of the students also filed silently into their seats, with their respective medabots marching to the back of the room. Erika glared at Ikki for a moment, then turned her attention back to the teacher. 

"Thank you, class. Now, as I mentioned last night, homework has been put off until tomorrow, so all of you procrastinators can heave a sigh of relief. Also, I have a surprise for all of you." The teacher looked at each and every student in the eye, then continued. "I've just managed to arrange a class trip to CLUSTER-001." 

A student raised his hand. "What's, um, a cluster?" 

Ikki forgot to sigh in relief and sighed in exasperation instead. "Not A cluster, THE CLUSTER. CLUSTER-001, to be more exact." 

The student stared at Ikki. "Well, what is it?" 

Ikki shrugged. "It's a space station owned by the Medabots Corp., designed for research in robattles, medaparts and medal development. We're going to have to take a special space shuttle in order to get there... In fact, I was there before... Don't you remember, Erika?" 

Erika nodded. "That's right, we were also invited to a certain research demonstration there. Although there was some sort of emergency that occurred while we were there..." 

Ikki nodded. "Not to mention, I got my backside beaten there..." 

"Tell me about it," Metabee groaned. "I got really pulverized by those new KBT-types..." 

The entire class excluding Erika suddenly rushed up to Ikki's desk, assaulting him with comments and questions. "Who was it that beat you?" 

"Yeah? Who?" 

"He must be really good if he could beat you in a robattle..." 

Ikki grumbled and muttered something under his breath as he remembered Kasumi and the rest of his classmates. He hadn't expected such advanced medabot technology to be utilized, and he and Metabee had been overwhelmed by a tag-team force of two new third-generation KBT-types. Although Ikki cut it as a loss and accepted it, for some reason, others couldn't come to grips with the fact that he had lost fair and square to a blue-haired, bookworm nerd of a kid from a private school. Erika's voice suddenly cut into his thoughts. 

"Ikki, by the way, have you considered entering into this year's Robattle World Cup?" 

Ikki shrugged. "I haven't thought about it yet... Maybe we will, maybe we won't. What about you, Erika?" 

Erika looked at Brass, and Brass looked back at Erika. Erika looked somewhat embarrassed. "A-actually, Ikki, I know this is sort of late, but... Brass and I wanted to ask you if you could help us train... for the competition." Ikki looked at Erika and Brass for a moment, then suddenly started to laugh. Erika began to turn red as a beet. "Well, fine! Laugh if you want! See if I care..." 

"No, no it isn't like that!" Ikki managed to splutter out through his guffaws. "It's just that... Why did it take so long for you to ask?" 

Erika's blush slowly dissipated, and she started to laugh as well. "Well, it's just that I didn't... Well, I... I just didn't know how." 

Ikki smiled. "There's no need for anything fancy, you know. If you want something from me, just ask me..." 

Metabee had a mischievous glint in his lime-green optics. "Hehe. Ain't that romantic." Brass merely looked at him questioningly.   


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Kaito cursed as brambles and twigs snapped and swatted into his face. Having been denied permission to have Tarou's lessons, the impulsive teenager had now resorted to sneaking off while his parents weren't looking in order to see Tarou. 

Vaulting over a picket fence, Kaito sprinted down the street and scrambled into the hopmart. Tarou looked up from the novel he was reading and smiled. 

"Ah, I see that you've made it. Very well, then, come with me to the back." Tarou stepped out the back door of the hopmart with Kaito closely following. Stepping into a large grassy backyard, Grayfang and a deactivated Tin-Pet with a medal and a medawatch on a mounting rig stood underneath a large pine tree that swayed with every gust of wind, shaking needles and cone seeds in a perpetual sprinkle. 

Tarou turned to his pupil. "Now, Kaito, take that medawatch over there, and activate the Tin-Pet. I'm sure you can do that, can't you?" 

Kaito nodded and clipped the medawatch to his wrist, and inserted the medal into the Tin-Pet. The system activated, and the Tin-Pet's eyes glowed with life. Tarou nodded in approval, then pressed a few buttons on his own medawatch. 

"Now, watch as I transfer medaparts over to your practice medabot." With a dim flash, a set of simple armored punching arms with revolvers, a basic set of steel-plated bipedal legs, and a standard helmeted head and torso took their respective places on the vacant Tin-Pet. 

Kaito looked at the display on his medawatch as it indicated the presence of intact medaparts, flashing several meters and counters onto the display. He then gave Tarou a questioning glance. "Now what do I do?" 

Tarou gave a gesture for silence. "Basics, Kaito, basics. Give a few basic movement orders to your medabot, and then we'll move onto the basics of robattling." Kaito nodded in agreement. Tarou smiled, and continued. "Ready? Okay, let's begin the lesson..."   


=====   


By the end of the training session, Kaito was exhausted. He had never realized how much was involved in being a medafighter, including basic maneuvers in combat, medapart maintenance and upkeep, as well as basic interaction with the medabot's personality and working with the medabot as a team player. 

Kaito stumbled back into the hopmart, his hands sore from welding and polishing the medaparts of his practice rig. Tarou and Grayfang followed, Tarou nodding in approval at his pupil's progress for the day. 

"Not bad, Kaito, not bad. So, how does it feel like being part of the medafighter's world?" 

Kaito collapsed against the glass counter and groaned. "Exhausting. I never thought that it would take so much work." 

Tarou closed his eyes as he nodded again. "Indeed. This is but a taste of what being an actual medafighter involves. Next time, we'll be working more with basic melee and ranged combat tactics." 

Kaito reached for his bag and stumbled out the door. Turning to Tarou, he gave a weak wave of farewell and started to walk in the direction of his house. Tarou waved back from the door of the hopmart, and then silently walked back inside, followed by Grayfang.   


=====   


By the time Kaito reached the avenue where his house was, it was getting dark, and he started to pick up the pace of his footsteps, trying to reach his room before his absence was noticed. Kaito, although tired, was in high spirits as he envisioned becoming the new medafighter champ, various arenas, challenges, and vague promises of victory all dancing within his head. 

So absorbed he was, in fact, in his daydreams that he failed to notice the police cars parked around his house until he accidentally ran into one of the cars' fenders. Looking up in dubious surprise, his exhaustion quickly melted away as he noticed an ambulance and several police officers standing around near the front of his house. Fearing the worst, Kaito started to run to the front door and past the screen door, unlatching it with little regard for the officers who were asking that he'd stop and identify himself. 

When he walked into the kitchen, he noticed the absence of his mother, who would have been cooking dinner by this hour. Running up the stairs to his parents' room, he muttered a quick prayer to kami-sama and pushed open the door, which was slightly ajar. 

That prayer was nowhere near sufficient to prepare him for the sight that greeted him as he entered into his parents' bedroom. Bloodstains were everywhere, and in the air still hung the acrid, sickly-sweet smell of charred and bleeding flesh. Two pairs of staring, expressionless eyes stared into Kaito's own as he stared, dumbstruck with horror. 

_No... NO!!!!_

The vision suddenly started to swirl, and then all went dark as the floor suddenly rushed up to meet him.   
  
  


**To Be Continued...**


	2. Chapter 2: Downplay

**STANDARD DISCLAIMER: ** I do not own Medabots, Medarot, nor anything related to the trademark. All rights, permissions, official characters, and concepts are properties of Imagineer Co. and Natsume.   


**Medabots: Open Ring**   
  


**Chapter II : Downplay**

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_"Euphemisms are half-truths. You may spare the pain from the recipient, but you may also be leaving the way open for an even greater pain."_   
-**_ Verse V of XII_**

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


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"Yes?" 

The secretary looked up from her papers with a hint of annoyance as two uniformed men walked into the office. In their wake followed a 15-year-old boy, who nervously clutched his travel bag. 

"We'd like to register this boy into your institution's records. As of now, he is officially orphaned." 

The secretary nodded briefly and typed a few commands into the keyboard terminal on her desk. Turning to the two men, she spoke again. "Name?" 

One of the men turned to the 15-year-old. "Boy, what's your name?" The teenager merely held up his school ID card. Turning back to the secretary with a hint of embarrassment, the man answered the secretary's question. "His name is Shingawa Kaito." 

"I see... Age?" 

"15." 

"Blood type?" 

"O-positive." 

"Eye color?" 

The other man stared at Kaito for a few minutes. "Dark-brown." 

The secretary finished typing, and handed Kaito a small slip of paper and activated the intercom. "Matoko, please proceed at once to the reception office. A new acquisition is awaiting your services." 

Bowing to the two men, the secretary nodded them to the door. "That is all, gentlemen. You are no longer needed." 

"Understood." Reaching into his coat pocket, one of the men pulled out a cell phone. "Drop-off completed. Orphan No. 34-22113 registered at Moonshadow Hills Orphanage. Awaiting instructions." After nodding for a few minutes in affirmation of whatever was being said on the other end of the line, the man replaced his cell phone and walked out of the office, followed by his colleague. 

Kaito Shingawa stood in the office, staring after the two, still clutching his travel bag in a state of nervous detachment.   


=====   


"Hurry up, Kasumi!!" 

"I'm hurrying, I'm hurrying..." 

Kasumi was trying to follow Hiyori the best he could, considering the fact that he was carrying both his and Hiyori's book bag. Granbeetle and Blazer-Multi, Hiyori's school-girlish BLZ-type medabot, were following Kasumi. 

The two childhood friends and classmates were walking towards the local medabot battle arena, a two-story structure designed for the sole purpose of friendly robattles between friends, potential rivals, and for certain public events. 

Siden, Fubuki, Mizore, and Goutetsu had already agreed to meet them there an hour ago with their respective medabots. Kasumi, who was habitually punctual, was having a hard time coming to terms with being late for their meeting. 

Hiyori, on the other hand, didn't have much qualms about being late for something unless it was something that captured her interest. Kasumi sighed as he remembered when he first met Hiyori back at secondary school, who had always been difficult to work with. Kasumi had noticed that she always acted somewhat... differently around him. Was it because she... LIKED him? Kasumi shook his head. 

_Can't be... I'm just a bookworm nerd of a kid... Maybe just as friends, but that's it..._

"Hey, Kasumi, what are you thinking about?" Hiyori was looking at him closely. 

"W-wha? A-absolutely nothing!!" Kasumi stammered for a suitable reply. 

Hiyori shook her head and wagged her index finger at him. "Don't say that. I know you like an open book, Kasumi. Whenever you've got that melancholy look on your face, you're thinking about something..." 

"A-absolutely impossible!" shot back Kasumi. "What makes you think that?!" 

Hiyori then smiled. "So predictable, Kasumi. So predictable." Walking forward, she took Kasumi's glasses off his face, and, without warning, kissed him on the cheek. Kasumi turned redder than a tomato. 

"Gwaaah!!" Kasumi shrieked. 

"SCORRE!!" Granbeetle yelled. 

Blazer-Multi didn't say anything at all, and merely stared at the pair with all the silence of an abandoned grandstand. 

Hiyori stepped back from Kasumi, who was still blushing furiously, and smiled again. "I've waited for a long time to do that..." 

"W-wha-!? What do you mean by..." 

Hiyori shook her head again. "You'll find out someday, Kasumi, when you're not so thick-skulled anymore..." Taking her book bag off of Kasumi's shoulders, she took his hand, which only served to make him blush even more, and pulled him towards the direction of the arena.   


=====   


Erika wiped the sweat from her forehead and exhaled, nodding in satisfaction at the array of pock-marked targets that were lying on the ground before her. "Good job, Brass. With some more practice, I think we'll be ready!" 

"You think so, Miss Erika?" 

"I'm quite sure!" Erika nodded. 

Ikki, who was standing a short distance away, grinned in approval. "Hey, not bad a job. I think you're almost tournament material this year!" 

Metabee merely shrugged. "I dunno, Ik-ster. Who knows, just because they can hit a bunch of targets doesn't mean that they can win at this year's tournament. There's still a tough crowd out there, and I don't think Brass can take them ALL on with only a Short-shot cannon and a submachine-gun." 

"So we're going to have to lend her some parts, that's all," muttered Ikki. "Of course, don't get me wrong; I AM worried, Metabee. If Kasumi and the others from that Uptown private school show up at this year's tourney..." 

"Then we're in big trouble. They beat us at CLUSTER-001, remember?" 

"I know, I know... We both got our backsides handed to us there. If there was only some way to beat Kaiserbeetle..." The two fell silent as they remembered the fierce, almost-demonic red KBT-type medabot they had encountered, which had utterly creamed them both back at CLUSTER. What bothered Ikki and Metabee wasn't the weapons it carried, although they weren't anything to laugh at. The problem was with the Medaforce abilities it carried... 

_The power to literally destroy an opponent's medabot in a single blast..._

Ikki and Metabee shook their heads. Ikki sighed. "We'll never be able to enter the competition with this attitude. We've got to learn from our mistakes, and fix 'em. Just because we lost a match doesn't necessarily mean that we'll lose again..." 

Metabee nodded. "You're right. I th-" 

"Hey, you guys, are you going to stand around like that all day!?" Erika glared at the two, and impatiently tapped her left foot on the ground. "Brass and I need to get more training done! Bring us something tougher to practice on!!" 

Ikki shook his head and grinned again. "If Erika's going to be like this at the tournament, we're going to have a tough time on our hands." He turned to Metabee. "Want to go for a little friendly practice robattle?" 

Metabee's look brightened. "Why not? Let's go!" 

The two ran forward to join their fellows, laughing with glee.   


=====   


Kaito Shingawa never knew exactly what he was doing anymore. The constant daily routines in the orphanage, combined with the mind-numbing morning roll-calls, were slowly sapping his grasp on reality. 

He shook his head and exhaled slowly. It had been three weeks since he had entered the orphanage, and there was no end in sight. 

_Why... Why did I sneak off like that? I... I left them to die..._

Kaito stared out the window, the autumn leaves falling to the ground and making scratching noises across the cement. He missed Nitane. He missed Tarou, even though he had only known him for so short a time. He missed his school, and he... he especially missed his parents. 

_I'm such a stupid, impulsive failure..._

Kaito sighed again and sat against the couch he had been leaning on. Life in the orphanage wasn't totally unpleasant, and most of the staff there were rather friendly. The problem was the atmosphere. Almost every other resident of the orphanage had a reticent look of melancholy, of... of... of hopelessness. Kaito almost felt ready to start tossing the cushions on the sofa out the window and start screaming in the face of the growing despair he himself was feeling. 

I should have just- 

"Shingawa Kaito?" Kaito looked up at the mention of his name. Standing near the doorway of the sitting room was the north wing's housekeeper, holding a package of sorts. She smiled, and looked at him. "Are you Shingawa Kaito? This is for you." 

Kaito nodded, and reached out to accept the package. "Arigatou gozaimasu." 

The housekeeper gave a sympathetic glance in his direction, and then walked out. 

Kaito studied the package. It was worn, beaten, wrapped in brown paper and tied with a tough hempen string. Stamped onto the paper were numerous labels of some legal origin, and the logo of some office of an attorney-at-law. 

The recipient was clearly indicated as Kaito, although the original address, he noted, was crossed out and replaced with that of the orphanage. 

Taking a slow breath and setting the package down onto the battered coffee table, he undid the coarse string and slowly unwrapped the package. The only things inside were several paper documents, a sealed envelope, and a card of indeterminable origin. 

Picking up the first paper in the bundle, he laid the rest aside and began to read...   
  
  


LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT 

It is hereby declared, and made official, with the sole result that all previous wills and deeds are to be rendered void, that this is the latest and last will and testament of the Shingawa family. The last sole survivor or the oldest of kin to the Shingawa family, is declared to be the recipient and will be given possession of all attached documents, information, and titles of ownership to all indicated material. 

Should the recipient be rendered null or otherwise unable to recieve this package, such as in the case of death, the property will be passed to various charities and hereby indicated owners.

  


Kaito snorted in contempt and set it down. The legal procedures that were affixed to the document simply wanted to make him puke. Setting it back into the box, he then pulled out the second piece of paper, convinced that it was another paper concerning itself with monotonous legal issues. This one, however, made him freeze.   
  
  


Dear Kaito, 

If you are reading this letter, then you should know that we are truly gone. Before you overly grieve over our demise, we wish to share with you a secret that your uncle held. Your uncle had always observed on his occasional visits that you were quite interested in medabots. Although we had always maintained that you would perhaps move on to other interests once you had grown up, it appears that, as of this date when we wrote this letter, you maintained your interest in medabots and every topic associated with such. Your uncle noticed your enthusiasm, and wanted to help you in getting a medabot of your own. 

However, before he was able to fully carry out his wishes in order to allow you to realize your dreams of becoming a medafighter, he was killed in his office... They found him slumped over his antique desk, the hilt of a pocketknife sticking out of his back two months before. 

His will had indicated that you were to receive "something", which he wanted you to discover on your own. Thus, in respect with his wishes, we refrained from telling you about his death until we felt that you were mature enough to discover what he had kept for you on your own. It now seems that we have little choice in this situation but to give you what your uncle wanted you to have. 

With greatest affection,   
Your parents

  


Kaito set the letter down with trembling hands, and carefully turned his attention to the sealed envelope. The envelope smelled faintly of library paste, and was browned at the edges, as if had been scorched from some sort of conflagration. Tearing the edge of the envelope, Kaito shook the contents out of its paper sheath. 

A single, plastic key-card fell onto the coffee table with a muted 'tap'. Picking up the key-card, Kaito noticed that there was an address and a P.I. number printed and taped to one side. Kaito muttered the missive on the key-card out loud. 

"HEX Corp... Never heard of it before..." Kaito stared at the key-card, then stared at the open window. A brief, questioning glance flashed in his eyes, and then disappeared. He knew that there was no question as to what to do. This orphanage was not the place for him. 

His inheritance was waiting.   


=====   


Samantha grumbled as she stood waiting. Sloan merely stood with an impassive stare. Spyke... Well, he was the object of Samantha's impatience. 

Samantha had called a meeting of the Screws about three hours earlier, and had then spent two of those three hours waiting solely for Spyke to arrive with Crosserdog. Peppercat and Totalizer had similar looks of impatience on their faces. 

Finally, Spyke and Crosserdog put in their appearance, dashing around the corner at top speed. "Sorry boss, my teacher had kept me after school because of an overdue book rep-" 

Samantha had put up with enough. "You're always making excuses, Spyke! You're a motivational loser! Even with Crosserdog, you're still a loser! Maybe not as badly as with Cyandog, but still, you're a bad medafighter..." 

Spyke winced at Samantha's remarks. "B-but boss, we really di-" 

"You really what?! Really procrastinated?! You're just like your medabot's typeset! You're a cowering, wimpy little pooch of a dog! You've only won two robattles out of the history of this gang! Unless you start to pull up your rankings in this gang soon, you're down the drain, got it!?" 

"You mean, I'm going to have to clean your sink?" 

"No, you moron! It means that you're going to be kicked out of the gang!!" 

"S-sorry, boss..." 

"Yeah, you boys are always sorry. Sorry for this, sorry for that... Well, instead of saying sorry all the time, try winning and getting your self-esteem up for a change!!" 

Spyke was crestfallen as he and Crosserdog promptly 'turned tail', so to speak, and walked away. Peppercat looked at the two with a measure of concern etched onto her visual sensors, and turned to her medafighter. 

"Boss, do you really think that it's advisable to do that to them? Sure, they're slow, dim-witted, and quite a pair of losers, but do they deserve all that?" 

Samantha sadly shook her head. "I don't know, Peppercat. I know that, at the very least, he's enthusiastic and always supportive, but he never seems to be able to get the job done. I just don't know, Peppercat. I just don't know..." 

Sloan looked at Totalizer for a moment. Simultaneously shrugging, they simply stared off into the distance with all the stolidity of driftwood on a beach.   


=====   


Spyke and Crosserdog slowly trudged through the streets of Rosewood, glumly staring at the passing traffic and the clouds above. Spyke was the first to break the silence. "It looks bad, Crosserdog." 

"Yes, boss. What are we going to do?" 

"I dunno... Are we doomed to being failures? I don't think there's any openings in the circus sideshow available, and we wouldn't even be able to entertain a crowd..." 

"Something cookin' on the brain, guys?" The two spun around to notice Metabee and Ikki standing behind them, regarding them with a narrow look. Metabee continued. "You two look like kicked dogs..." 

"Metabee!" muttered Ikki fiercely. Metabee nodded in understanding. 

"Whoops, forgot... Sorry, you guys." 

"That's okay," mumbled Spyke. "We're used to being put down." 

"I overheard what Samantha was saying to you two," put in Ikki. "I think she's right. Why ARE you guys letting everything and everybody walk all over you? Your team is perfectly sound, and Crosserdog isn't plagued with the problems Cyandog had. Why are you guys still always losing?" 

Spyke shrugged. "I really don't know." 

Ikki thought hard for a moment, then his face lit up. "Say, guys, I'm currently helping Erika train for the World Robattle Cup. How about training with us? It just might help you guys..." 

"...Be less pathetic at losing," smirked Metabee. 

Ikki merely glared at Metabee for his lack of tactfulness. "As I was saying, it might help you guys improve in your robattle skills, and it certainly wouldn't hurt to try for the tourneys." 

Spyke and Crosserdog looked at eachother for a moment, then both nodded their assent. "Why not? It might help us get back our respect in the gang... Okay, Ikki, lead the way." 

Ikki and Metabee grinned at eachother, and then promptly proceeded to pull the pair of losers in the direction of Riverview High.   


=====   


As Kasumi, Hiyori and their medabots approached the local medabot battle arena, the first thing that caught their attention was a large plume of smoke issuing from the two-story building, as well as the sound of battle. 

"Something's wrong," muttered Kasumi. 

Picking up their pace, the four ran the rest of the way to the arena, fearing the worst. 

The sight that met their eyes made them stop. Although the surrounding buildings were untouched, the entire front section of the arena building had been blown away, leaving a gigantic crater of rubble and smouldering wreckage in its place. 

For a fleeting moment, Kasumi felt a twinge of fear that his friends had been caught in the conflagration... Until he saw a quartet of familiar faces that made him sigh with relief. 

Siden, Fubuki, Mizore and Goutetsu all trudged out of the wreckage, grimy and covered in ashes. Siden managed a wry grin as he walked up to Kasumi. "What took you guys so long?" 

Kasumi shrugged. "Had some things to do. What happened here?" 

Fubuki, a thin, brown-haired girl who sported a green beret and sunglasses spoke up as her LDB-type medabot Tolemi managed to walk to her side. "A rogue medabot came in and utterly trashed the place. We tried to stop it, but it moved too fast. Nearly took out Mizore's and Goutetsu's medabots." 

As if affirming his statement, Sikkuru, Mizore's blue CPM-type spider-like medabot, and Bagstein, Goutetsu's tank-like STN-type medabot, both stumbled out of the wreckage and collapsed onto the pavement. Ashton, Siden's GWF-type medabot, similarly limped out of the wreckage and heavily sat next to Siden. 

Kasumi looked up at the wreckage behind them. "So where is this medabot now?" 

Goutetsu, who was a heavyset boy wearing a teal warmup suit, grunted as he indicated the building. "It's still inside the arena. We barely got out ourselves." 

Mizore, a purple-haired boy who wore his school uniform somewhat sloppily, nodded in concurrence. 

Kasumi grimaced as he looked back at the building. "Anybody else inside?" 

"There's several other fellows from our class who are still inside," muttered Siden. "They've got some Select Corp. men in there trying to root it out, but seeing as how we got our butts kicked there, I doubt they'll do much better." 

Almost as if in answer, an explosion issued from the side of the arena building as several members of the Select Corp. and their medabots came flying through the wall. The force of the shockwave sent everyone else around the building stumbling to the ground. The sight that greeted their eyes as the smoke cleared made Kasumi and Hiyori start back in surprise. 

A massive, blue-colored Medabot with swept-back horns stood before them, its red eyes gleaming as it stood before the group, powerful melee weapons at the ready. 

Kasumi stumbled to his feet and narrowly regarded the medabot. "It's a KWG-type... Where did it come from?" 

Siden helped Ashton up, his eyes narrowing as he spoke. "It's Luminoustag... an Stag-beetle experimental medabot that Robattle-Research was working on before they got shut down due to the CLUSTER debacle." 

Kasumi stood before the huge medabot cautiously as he spoke. "Well, it's certainly powerful... Granbeetle, you ready?" 

"Am I ever!" yelled the KBT-type excitedly. "Let's go!" Granbeetle got to his feet and charged to attack mode. 

The blue-colored medabot named by Siden as Luminoustag seemed to regard the smaller KBT-type with an expression of contempt before revealing a huge, two-edged gold-plated swordblade. 

Granbeetle gulped. "This is going to be hard... Blazer-Multi, give me some backup, 'kay?" 

Hiyori's BLZ-type medabot nodded and got to her feet. "Acknowledged. Miss Hiyori, are we ready?" 

Hiyori nodded and reached for her medawatch. "Ready, Blazer-Multi. Let's give it everything!" 

"Okay!" yelled Kasumi. "Granbeetle, set for attack mode! Revolver!" 

"Gotcha!" yelled Granbeetle. 

Granbeetle leaped into the air as it pointed its single-barrelled revolver at the huge KWG-type, firing volley after volley of high-velocity AP shells. 

Luminoustag, to the amazement of all, simply dodged every single bullet. 

Siden cursed. "That's the hat trick it pulled on us. Hiyori, we need to get better aim on it!" 

Hiyori nodded as she turned to Blazer-Multi. "Blazer! Variable-radar!" 

Blazer-Maru nodded as she activated the radar set inside her head. Granbeetle, who was still cursing as he shot at the evading Luminoustag, finally drew a bead as he landed a hit on the KWG-type medabot's legs. 

Luminoustag, however, simply seemed to shrug off the damage and suddenly lunged at Granbeetle, swiping at him with its swordblade and neatly cutting into his left leg. Granbeetle gave a sharp yell of pain as the KWG-type's melee weapon continued to tear through his armor plating. 

Kasumi wiped the sweat from his brow and pressed a button on his medawatch. "Hang on, Granbeetle, I'm sending for reinforcements..." 

"Wait!" yelled Siden. "Are you sure you can handle him? What if he goes berserk again!?" 

Kasumi gave Siden a grim look. "That's a risk I'm going to have to take... Transport Kaiserbeetle!" 

A sphere of intense blue light suddenly flashed upon the field as a new medabot made its appearance upon the battleground. A massive, red-colored KBT-type medabot, sporting huge gun barrels, slowly hovered to the ground. 

Luminoustag suddenly paused in the mid-swing of his second attack as he regarded this new threat... And hesitated. 

That was all Granbeetle needed as he launched a volley of explosive bullets from his head-mounted cannons. Catching Luminoustag full in the face, Granbeetle slipped out of Luminoustag's attack range and scrambled backwards. 

Luminoustag staggered backwards from Granbeetle's unexpected attack, leaving itself open and temporarily blinded. 

Kasumi spotted the momentary gap in the KWG-type medabot's defense, and took advantage of it. "Kaiserbeetle! Full power to all guns! Give it everything you've got!!" 

The trio of Kaiserbeetle's gun barrels abruptly flashed and sparked as a hail of metal slugs buried themselves into the KWG-type medabot's armor. 

Luminoustag gave an odd-sounding cry of pain as it received the volley of bullets, and retreated, leaping up the side of a nearby building. Landing on the roof, it turned, and regarded the motley group of schoolkids and their medabots with a strange glint in its red eyes. Then, it turned and leaped away, leaving the field to the band of schoolkids.   


=====   


The darkness of evening found Kasumi and the rest of the group all walking back towards their homes. 

"What I don't understand," said Hiyori, "is how that thing even got here." She turned to Siden. "Do you think that Robattle-Research had something to do with it?" 

Siden shook his head. "Robattle-Research may use unconventional means to develop and test new medaparts and medabots, but they wouldn't let a prized fighter of a medabot like Luminoustag get out of their grasp." He looked up at the swaying trees, and sighed. "Something smells like fish." 

Goutetsu sniffed. "That's funny, I don't smell fish." 

Mizore elbowed him. "It's a figure of speech, doofus. He means that someone's up to no good." 

Fubuki turned to Kasumi. "By the way, Kasumi, how is the training going for the World Robattle Cup? I noticed that Kaiserbeetle was more... controlled than last time I saw him." 

"Oh, it's not much," mumbled Kasumi in an embarrassed tone. "Just making progress, that's all..." 

"Mr. Kasumi?" A heavily cloaked figure suddenly stepped out of the shadows of a nearby alley. 

"Uhm... yes, that's me." 

"I have a message for you... Compliments of Robattle-Research." Without another word, the figure handed Kasumi a sealed envelope, stepped back into the darkness of the alley, and abruptly vanished from sight. 

Kasumi regarded the alley for a long moment, then tore the envelope open, pulling out a letter written on crisp, white paper. 

"What's it say?" asked Granbeetle. 

Kasumi scanned the lines, and his eyes widened in surprise, before turning grim. "It's... It's... a message. Stating that more incidents like that at the local robattle arena are guaranteed to come."   


=====   


"Was the message delivered successfully?" 

"Yes, master. All has been done as asked. The target has received your letter." The same cloaked figure bowed in the darkness of an unidentified room, somewhere deep within the bowels of the sewers of the city. 

"Excellent." The darkness briefly parted from a pair of dim lights, to reveal a concealed face, hooded and masked. "Soon, all of them will be in my trap, and there will be nothing standing in my way of gaining the secrets of Robattle-Research. Victory WILL be ours!" 

The room was once again blanketed in darkness, and all was quiet.   
  
  


**To Be Continued...**


	3. Chapter 3: Rise of the Helix

**STANDARD DISCLAIMER: ** I do not own Medabots, Medarot, nor anything related to the trademark. All rights, permissions, official characters, and concepts are properties of Imagineer Co. and Natsume.   


**Medabots: Open Ring**   
  


**Chapter III : Rise of the Helix**

=====   
  
  


_"Decisions in life are not always made freely. They are often made in duress of the consequences that might follow."_   
_-** Ramblings of Nine**_

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


=====   


Kaito grunted as he threw his duffelbag over the chain-link fence that surrounded the HEX Corp. office complex. The building was a two-story affair, built of whitewashed concrete and steel girders, and somewhat worn by the lack of maintenance and occupation. Heaving himself over the fence, and cutting past the razorwire with a pair of 'borrowed' pliers, Kaito landed on the ground with a thump and dusted off the seat of his pants. 

It had been only three hours since he had snuck out of Moonshadow Hills orphanage, and he was exhausted from the run he had executed in order to evade any attempt at bringing him back. Dusting off his hands, he picked up his duffelbag and cautiously approached the office building. Coming up to what appeared to be a glass door leading to the reception hall, Kaito stared at the complicated electronic lock that was bolted to the door's frame. A card slot, a numeric keypad, and a series of lights presented themselves to Kaito's face, all blank and devoid of activity. 

Kaito regarded the lock for a long moment, and then pulled out the cardkey which he had gotten from the package he'd received. 

Quickly praying to whatever gods he revered, Kaito swiped the cardkey into the slot... And grinned in relief as one of the lights on the lock suddenly flashed green. A satisfying 'thwump' came from the lock, and the door unexpectedly swung open, as if inviting the young teenager in. 

Kaito looked at his cardkey, and then noticed a large map, which apparently displayed the office grounds. One of the sectors appeared to match the coordinates hastily scrawled on the cardkey's backing. Shrugging and deciding to give it all it was worth, Kaito walked down a nearby flight of stairs.   


=====   


The coordinates indicated on the cardkey led to a large storage area of sorts, stacked with crates and shelves of indeterminate objects, including stacks of reports, datadiscs, and tools. A small computer terminal lay sitting in the dust on a nearby desk. What puzzled Kaito was the fact that the computer seemed to be on 'standby', as if waiting for some action to move its CPU back into full force. 

Dusting off the cover of the computer, Kaito gingerly sat down on a worn rolling chair and fiddled with the terminal's keyboard. 

The computer's monitor sprang to life, bleeping and suddenly displaying scrolling lines of data along the screen. The flow of data then stopped after a few moments, and a terse command flashed onto the monitor. 

PLEASE INSERT ID CARD. 

Kaito looked around the vicinity of the desk for the indicated card, and finding none, stared at his cardkey, which seemed to match the width of the slot indicated on the terminal's panel. 

Hoping for the best, the youth quickly inserted the cardkey into the slot, and waited. 

For a few moments, the computer seemed to pause, as if considering the card that had been inserted into it. Then, some more lines of text scrolled across the screen.   
  


AUTHENTICATING ID.... 

ID AUTHENTICATED. ACCESSING CLASSIFIED RECORDS... 

ACCESSING FILES FOR PROJECT HELIX... 

DOORLOCK OPENED. ACCESS GRANTED.   
  


Then, without warning, the computer shut itself down. Kaito flipped the power switch a few times, then sighed in resignation. 

"Probably has some sort of trigger-linked kill-circuit," he muttered out loud. His voiced thoughts were suddenly interrupted, however, as the clicking of a lock echoed through the room. Turning around in alarm, he noticed that a large section of the paneling had slid aside, revealing a passageway that he hadn't seen when he'd first entered the area. 

Warily getting up and making his way over to the passage, Kaito noticed that this tunnel seemed to be older than the rest of the building. Graffiti and scrawlmarks adorned the walls, and old pipes made for some indeterminable purpose hung limply from corroded scaffolding. 

The tunnel dipped downwards, and Kaito had to walk slower in order to keep his footing. 

The end of the passage presented itself to him in the form of another door... Huge, steel-reinforced, and multi-locked. Digging out the ever-ubiquitous cardkey, Kaito swiped it into a nearby card-slot without hesitation. 

The door clicked, and then swung open with a heavy groan as the hinges broke through the film of rust that had accumulated over them. 

The sight that greeted Kaito's eyes took his breath away.   


=====   


A dimly lit hallway stretched forward past the door, ending with a mounting rig... Upon which rested a medabot. Curiosity getting the better of him, Kaito ran forward to inspect his discovery. 

The medabot was unlike anything that was currently on the public consumer's market, and appeared to be in mint condition. Its gray-green armor gleamed in the dimmed light of the hall, and a large horn graced its forehead. Kaito gave a rap with his knuckles onto the medabot's armor plating, and nodded in approval. From what Tarou had told him, medapart plating was designed for either speed, or heavy defense. This one, by the dull ringing it made, appeared to be an excellent balance of both. 

The left and right arms were formed into a series of formidable weaponry. The right arm consisted of a typical "gauntlet" weapons pod configuration shape, and had four gun-barrels attached to its wrist area. The left arm was formed into a very large cannon, and appeared to be an energy weapon of sorts, due to the shaping of its housing which indicated the presence of a micro-generator. 

Continuing his scrutiny of the mounting rig that kept the inactive medabot standing, Kaito stood back in surprise as he noticed two more objects on the mounting rig. 

A medawatch, apparently tailor-made for the medabot which stood nearby... 

_...And a medal._

Kaito cautiously picked up the medal, which appeared to be unlike any other medal he had seen in shops, or in robattles. The letter adorning the top of the medal was a 'Z', and the image engraved onto it appeared to be that of a young beetle larva. 

He looked at the inactive medabot standing on the mounting rig. The horn on its head, as well as the picture of the beetle larva on the medal left no doubt in his mind that this medabot was modeled after the KBT-type, or Kabuto series. 

The Kabuto series, or the Hercules-Beetle typeset, as they were more commonly known in the U.S, were designed primarily for shooting and ranged revolver-play tactics. Due to their excellent balance in firepower, agility, and armor, they were often used by top medafighters, and were also utilized as excellent ranged-support and leader positions in team battles. 

Continuing his analysis of the medal, he flipped it over. 

The back of the medal, strangely enough, had the image of a helix engraved onto it, which surprised him, since all medals that he had seen were blank on the back, without any ornamentation whatsoever. 

The medal gleamed, and the inner 'eye' of the medal appeared to be almost... _alive_, glimmering with a strange green light. As Kaito regarded the three objects on the mounting rig, a train of thought started inside his mind. 

_Was this the thing that his uncle had wanted to give him?_

Turning to the medawatch, Kaito picked up the device off its hook and looked at it closely. The watch had a swing-cover design, consisting of a tough composite of duraplasteel, a plastic and steel shell that was made for heavy use. Kaito looked at the inside of the cover and grinned. There was that same HEX Corp. logo on the outside, as well as another logo that consisted of two "R"s, one in front of the other, on the inside of the cover. 

The youth looked at the medal and medawatch he clutched in his hands, and silently regarded them. Then, with a sudden motion, Kaito strapped the medawatch to his left wrist, and began opening the access panel on the back of the inactive KBT-model. 

Kaito looked at the medabot on the mounting rig and hesitated for a moment. Some eerie feeling had suddenly swept over him, as if he were standing at the brink of a chasm, with only a few centimeters between him and the boundless pit that stood before him. 

Then the hesitation vanished, and there was a 'clunking' sound as Kaito inserted the medal into its bracket. 

For a moment, all was silent, and Kaito wondered if the medal even worked. Then, the optical visor of the KBT-type medabot on the mounting rig suddenly lit up with a mighty thrum of activated servos and circuitry. At that same moment, the display on Kaito's medawatch lit up, and several meters appeared on the LCD panel.   


MEDAL ACTIVE: HELIXBEETLE ONLINE 

HEAD: HUNTER-RADAR: 100% - STATUS: NORMAL   
R-ARM: TETRACANNON: 100% - STATUS: NORMAL   
L-ARM: RAILGUN: 100% - STATUS: NORMAL   
LEGS: WARPSEEKER: 100% - STATUS: NORMAL   


The medabot suddenly stretched its limbs, and knocked the mounting rig over. Kaito started in a bit of surprise as it spoke. "Damnit! That's been the longest nap I've ever taken... Hey, what gives?!" The KBT-model had swivelled its head as it noticed the young teenager standing beside it, the medawatch strapped to his wrist. 

Kaito looked at it for a long moment, then stammered for a reply. "I-I'm your medafighter..." 

Helixbeetle seemed to have a skeptical look on its face as Kaito spoke, and then made a reply. "Hey, now, listen, I don't know how you got your hands on my boss's medawatch, but it would BEHOOVE you if you could kindly take it off that dirty wrist of yours." 

"Dirty!?" yelled Kaito. "I'll show you-" 

Helixbeetle suddenly raised its left arm, pointing its huge railgun at Kaito's face. "Step back, buddy. You've got a lot of respect to learn. And take that medawatch off. My boss isn't gonna like you messin' with his stuff." 

"Hey, who IS your boss, anyway?" asked Kaito with a hint of curiosity in his voice. 

Helixbeetle didn't lower the railgun he was still pointing at Kaito, but grumbled a response. "My boss? His name's Shingawa Tensuo... Why the sudden curiosity? Part of the national revenues department or somethin'?" 

"Shingawa Tensuo... That's... That's my uncle! My uncle was your medafighter!?" 

Helixbeetle, at this sudden revelation, cautiously lowered his railgun. "He wasn't a medafighter... He didn't robattle. All he did was work on my components and medal composition. Where the heck is he anyway?" 

Kaito's expression fell. "WAS your boss. My uncle's dead." 

Helixbeetle suddenly looked around the chamber with a note of surprise. "Hey, that makes sense... This place looks like a dump. Boss never let things get messy. He was a clean-freak. So my boss was your uncle?" 

"Yeah. Name's Kaito. Kaito Shingawa." 

Helixbeetle sat down on the dusty tiled floor with disbelief. "Well, stuff a missile up my medal bracket. You're his nephew. You definitely look like him, I'll hand you that. There's that family resemblance." 

Kaito looked around the room as he sat down on the floor next to him. "How was my uncle like?" 

The KBT-type chuckled as he thought. "He was one of the best friends a 'bot could ask for. Had a lot of technical skill, but he could have been a great medafighter if he wanted to... He made me, parts, medal, Tin-Pet and all, you know..." 

"I never really knew him. He only dropped in at home once or twice, and he never talked to me much. I heard in a letter from my parents that he was killed by somebody a few months back..." Kaito sighed as he thought about his family, now all long gone. "Have you ever been in a robattle?" 

Helixbeetle chuckled again. "As strange as it sounds, I've never been in a robattle. Boss wasn't around long enough to get me in one, I guess. Of course, I'd always wanted to be in one." He turned to Kaito. "So, what are we going to do now? Am I going to have go back on that mounting rig?" 

"I doubt it," said Kaito. "The letter I got from my parents told me that... Uncle wanted me to have you for a medabot." 

Helixbeetle stared at him. "Well, I'll be... So that's why you're wearing his medawatch. Well, kid, you think you have what it takes?" 

"Aren't you a little 'green' to be saying something like that?" 

"Hey, I learned things from your uncle, kid!" 

"Don't call me a k-" Kaito's protest was suddenly cut off as an alarm started to go off. 

Helixbeetle looked around with a sort of anxious manner. "Damn. Security's been triggered. Don't get me wrong, kid, but I think you tripped a wire. We're going to have get out of here fast!" 

The KBT-type medabot's last statement faded away as the two noticed movement down the corridor. Kaito gulped. "We seem to have company." 

"I noticed that, blockhead... It's the sentries... Two of 'em, to be exact." 

"Blockhead!? I'll give you-" Kaito's reply was cut short as a volley of bullets sent the two diving for cover behind a pile of cardboard boxes. A pair of tank-like medabots, sporting quadruple chainguns, rolled into the hall. 

"Damn! It looks like we've been thrown into our first robattle... Kaito, do you know how to act as a medafighter?" 

"Well, I've had a bit of training, but I-" 

"Good enough for me. Kid, we're going to have to work as partners if we're to get out if this in one piece. Ready?" 

"I guess so." 

"Great. Let's move!" 

The two jumped out from their cover as the pair of SEN-type medabots opened fire with their machine cannons, riddling holes in the floor and in the walls. Kaito looked at his medawatch and muttered a "Here goes nothing" as the two took a defensive position. 

Helixbeetle looked at his weaponry. "Hey, Kaito, watch my back, alright?" 

"'Kay." 

"Hey punks! Eat railgu-OOF!" The powerful recoil of the railgun had launched Helixbeetle into the wall behind them. Kaito looked at him for a long moment before another hail of bullets sent them ducking for cover. 

"I think you need a little practice with that thing." 

"Same with you, shorty. All right, another try... RAILGUN!!" This time, the railgun shot forth in a controlled beam, hitting dead-center into the faceplate of one of the SEN-types. 

A brilliant conflagration ensued, the explosion nearly drowning out the sound of a medal hitting the floor with a small tinkling noise. As if on cue, however, another pair of SEN-types suddenly rolled in out of nowhere, coming in to join their remaining comrade. 

"Three now?!" muttered Kaito under his breath. "Okay, Helixbeetle, try using your Tetracannon!" 

"Gotcha!" The quad-barrelled weapon flashed and sparked as a hail of energy crackled across the corridor, hitting the SEN-types' arms and legs with damaging effect. Another two explosions rippled through the hallway, and two more medals hit the dust. 

"Got th- WHAT THE HEY!?" Four SEN-types marched in, and where there had been three, there were now five. Helixbeetle cursed. "Damn them! Boss put in a real good system here..." 

Kaito looked at his medawatch. "Helixbeetle, try using both of your weapons in a controlled rate of fire... It might be able to stop them..." 

"Roger that... SMOKE THIS, PUNKS!!" A dual volley of railgun blasts and energy bolts flashed across the hallway, raining death onto the quintet. Five medals hit the dust with a ringing tap. 

Kaito was about to heave a sigh of relief, when a sound of rolling treads suddenly echoed into the hallway again. Helixbeetle pounded his fist onto the ground. 

"DAMNIT!! THEY NEVER GIVE UP!!" Ten more SEN-types now rolled into the hallway, this time forming in a staggered formation, as if trying to evade the KBT-type's cannon-play tactics. Helixbeetle shot another volley, blasting two more. 

"We're surrounded, Helixbeetle! We've got to find a way to get past th-" Kaito's remark was cut off as a concentrated hail of fire from the SEN-type medabots finally hit their mark, making impact with Helixbeetle's legs. 

"GYAUUU!!" Helixbeetle yelled in pain as the KBT-type fell to the floor, his left leg completely disabled. The SEN-types continued to close in, firing several more punishing volleys of chaingun bullets into Helixbeetle's torso and arms. 

"No!! HELIXBEETLE!!" Kaito yelled. He stared in horror as the meters on his medawatch continued to drop.   


MEDAL ACTIVE: HELIXBEETLE ONLINE 

HEAD: HUNTER-RADAR: 10% - STATUS: CRITICAL   
R-ARM: TETRACANNON: 20% - STATUS: CRITICAL   
L-ARM: RAILGUN: 30% - STATUS: CRITICAL   
LEGS: WARPSEEKER: 10% - STATUS: MALFUNCTIONING 

WARNING: SYSTEM SHUTDOWN IMMINENT   


Kaito shouted frantically into his medawatch. "Helixbeetle! Get up! GET UP!!" 

Helixbeetle got to his feet, grunting with the effort as the strained gyros and circuits in his legs whined in protest as he exerted his legs. Kaito noticed that he had an eerie glow in his eyes as he got up. 

Without warning, a blinding flash of green light flooded the corridor, making Kaito impulsively shield his eyes from the staggering glow as Helixbeetle straightened, the glow in his eyes becoming even brighter. 

Kaito shouted into his medawatch with alarm in his voice. "Helixbeetle what's going on!? Is... is that... the _medaforce!?_" 

Suddenly, Helixbeetle unleashed a massive golden bolt of energy into the hallway, the walls crackling with powerful force as the huge bolt of energy flung itself towards the group of SEN-type medabots with all the force and weight of a meteor. 

"GAAUGGH!!" Kaito dove behind a pile of crates as a massive explosion rocked the tunnel, sending pieces of the ceiling tumbling down in rough fragments onto the tiled floor. Abruptly, the forceful shockwave subsided, the glow slowly fading away back into darkness. Kaito looked up from behind the pile of crates, cautiously getting to his feet as the last of the ceiling's fragments fell to the floor. He stared in disbelief at what he saw. 

Helixbeetle still stood where he had been standing in the corridor, silently regarding a smoking pile of SEN-type medabots and a corroded pile of medals which were all lying in a jumbled heap on the floor. 

What puzzled Kaito, however, was the fact that Helixbeetle didn't have a scratch on him. 

_Didn't he get hit by those chaingun bullets from the sentries? He was seriously damaged... How... How did those medaparts..._

The young medafighter cautiously walked up to the KBT-type medabot, and softly spoke, fear and awe mixed into his voice. 

"What kind of medabot ARE you?" 

Helixbeetle didn't say a word, and merely looked up at Kaito with an impassive expression on its visored face.   


=====   


Erika slumped onto her bed, exhausted after the day's training. Brass followed suit, collapsing onto the carpet with the clanking of strained gyros. Brass turned and looked at Erika. 

"Miss Erika, do you think we'll actually have a chance in the World Robattle Cup this year?" 

"I don't know, Brass..." mumbled Erika. "I know we're going to have to ask Ikki for some parts, since I don't think we can win simply with the set of guns you have... But what worries me the most is the competition. It's so... worrisome. All of these top medafighters, and we aren't even all that great compared to Ikki or Metabee." 

"I can see what you mean..." Brass seemed to have a thoughtful expression on her face. "Miss Erika, I don't know if I'm going into something too sensitive, but what are your thoughts on Ikki?" 

"Ikki?" asked Erika in slight puzzlement. "Why do you ask?" 

"Well... because... I've noticed that whenever you look at Ikki, you look at him longer than other boys, like, Mr. Sloan or Spyke from the Screws gang." 

"You've noticed, huh?" muttered Erika. "Yeah... I... I like him... He's stubborn, block-headed, but then all boys are like that... But he's definitely a great medafighter, and he's not that bad... He always had a good heart too..." 

"And that's what you consider the best thing about him?" 

Erika smiled at Brass. "Everything about him is the best." 

Brass nodded. "Then... hm..." 

Erika looked at Brass a little closer. "Something on your mind?" 

Brass nodded again. "I... uhm... Do you think that medabots have emotions?" 

Erika thought hard as she skewed her face in concentration. "I... I'm not quite sure. I'm certain Metabee does. Those two stubborn blockheads are two of a kind. But they both have good hearts... And they're excellent partners. Brass... are you all right?" 

Brass started to blush a bright red. "I... I think so... Miss Erika, what do you think about Metabee?" 

Erika chuckled and made a position of mock thoughtfulness. "Don't tell me... You've got the hots for someone..." 

Brass started to turn even redder in the face and stammered for a reply. "W-wha... I-Is that what it is, Miss Erika?!" 

Erika grinned. "I'm a reporter. I'm used to noticing that sort of thing. It's so easy to recognize. First it's the silent staring, then the oh-so-innocent questions that slowly focus more and more on the person you like..." She sat back on the bed. "Is it Metabee?" 

Brass suddenly found her feet and legs to be of great interest. "It's Metabee." 

Erika nodded understandingly and looked out the window. "Of course, being such blockheads as they are, I don't think they'd figure that out, even if we hit them over the head with it." 

Brass blushed even more as the phone abruptly rang, interrupting their dialogue. Erika picked it up. 

"Hello?" 

Ikki's voice came on at the other end of the line, filled with some alarm. "Erika, did you hear tonight's news on the TV? There's been an incident at a local robattle arena building on the other side of town." 

"What exactly happened?" 

"Don't know much. Some rogue KWG-type medabot was on a warpath inside the building and utterly trashed the place. Several Select Corp. men are injured, one staff member is dead... And one other thing..." 

"What?" 

"Medabot Corp. has just been attacked." There was a slight pause, and then Ikki continued. "By the same rogue medabot."   


=====   


Siden was standing on the balcony of his room, silently staring at the trees below. Despite the peaceful atmosphere around his mansion-home, he was not feeling happy at all. What worried him the most was the letter he and the rest of the gang had seen Kasumi receive. 

Ashton, his GWF-type medabot, similarly stood next to him, silent and thoughtful. A moment later, he turned to Siden and spoke. "Pardon me, Master Siden, but I'm rather puzzled about this new threat we ran into at the arena." 

Siden shook his head. "I know what you mean, Ashton. I didn't expect you to be so utterly defeated, either. I hadn't expected that to happen. But the worst thing that troubles me is this: Why would a Robattle-Research test 'bot be set loose into the city streets? They wouldn't let something as valuable as that out of their grasp, slippery as their fingers are. My father won't be pleased about this." 

Almost as if in reply, Siden's instant messaging device (IMD) began to ring, notifying its owner that a message was waiting for him. Siden picked up the IMD and flipped the cover open. It was from Kasumi. Siden frowned at the display as he and Kasumi began to initiate a dialogue on their respective IMDs.   


K-mAn>> Hey, I needed to talk to you, so I chose this method of getting contact. Did you hear the news? 

RRebel>> No. What is it? 

K-mAn>> Medabot Corp.'s been attacked. 

RRebel>> **:\** Figures. Didn't that letter you got this afternoon say something like that? 

K-mAn>> That's what scares me. And the worst thing is that it was caused by the same medabot that attacked the arena today. 

RRebel>> Luminoustag? 

K-mAn>> Yes. 

RRebel>> ... 

K-mAn>> Something bothering you? **:\**

RRebel>> **:P** Yeah. Something about this all seems too familiar. I've seen this before, and yet, I can't remember what it was. 

K-mAn>> Whatever it is, there's nothing else. Select Corp. was being inept about the matter as usual, saying things that's typical of P.R. 

RRebel>> P.R? 

K-mAn>> Public Relations. 

RRebel>> lol   


At that moment, Siden's cell phone went off, interrupting Siden's train of thought.   


RRebel>> Hey, my cell phone's ringing. I gotta go. See ya at school tomorrow. 

K-mAn>> See ya! ** :)**   


Turning off his IMD and picking up his cell phone, Siden extended the phone's antenna and turned up the audio volume. "Hello?" 

An eerie, fluid male voice suddenly spoke through the diaphragm. "I have been watching you, child of privilege. I have been watching you, and all of your friends as well." 

Siden's eyes narrowed as he replied. "Oh? And what about us do you find so interesting?" 

The voice chuckled. "Why, everything. I know about your involvement with Robattle-Research. I know about your friend Kasumi. I know about his many... talents as a medafighter. I also know about the medabots he possesses. Be warned, child. The attack on the arena and on the Medabot Corp. are only the beginning." 

"What do you mean, only the beginning?!" 

"By the time this is over, you will know, Siden... You will know." 

"Give me some answers before I...!" 

The voice laughed eerily. "Very well. If you seek some answers, you will get them. Come tomorrow evening to the docks... Pier 6. 9:00 P.M. ALONE." 

Siden frowned. "How do you guarantee that this isn't some trap?" 

"I don't. But, that's the fun of it, young child. It's like a game of draughtsmen, young Siden. It's important to think ahead... And sometimes, the risks are worth taking. Will you jump ahead? Or will you hold back your hand, waiting to see how your opponent will move? All of this is important," the voice goaded. 

"Stop bantering, and give me some explanations!!" 

"The only explanations I will give you are the directions I gave you earlier. Pier 6. 9:00 P.M. Whether you wish to come or not is your decision." With those words, the mysterious caller abruptly hung up. 

Siden cursed. "Damn it! I'm getting nowhere with this... Ashton, what do you think?" 

Ashton looked at his medafighter. "Sounds like a trap, Master Siden. By any estimate, it may be a good idea to bring along someone to ride shotgun." 

Siden nodded. "That's what I'd do... But, if I bring my friends along, this caller may choose not to reveal himself... Or worse, he might harm them..." He turned back to the stars that shone brilliantly above. "My mind's made up, Ashton. I'll make my appointment with this devil. If he chooses to make his attack then, god help us all..."   
  
  


**To Be Continued...**


	4. Chapter 4: En Passant

**STANDARD DISCLAIMER: ** I do not own Medabots, Medarot, nor anything related to the trademark. All rights, permissions, official characters, and concepts are properties of Imagineer Co. and Natsume.   


**Medabots: Open Ring**   
  


**Chapter IV : En Passant**

=====   
  
  


_"The most dangerous moves in a game are the ones that you expect your opponent to make."_   
-**_ Advanced Stratagems_**

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


=====   


Ikki stood outside the front gate leading to Medabot Corp. Shaking his head, he looked at Metabee for a long moment. "This doesn't look good. Metabee, do you think it might be the RubberRobos?" 

Metabee shook his head. "Nah. They're too dumb to pull something off like this so smoothly. They always make a lot of noise and a lot of fuss on their operations. This was just one medabot, and a rare one too." Metabee thought hard. "Do you think it might be Rokusho? The newscast said that a KWG-type was involved." 

"Unlikely." Ikki and Metabee turned in surprise as they came found themselves facing a pair of shining red eyes framed by a white horned helmet. 

"Rokusho!" exclaimed Ikki. "What brings you here?" 

Rokusho looked at the shadowy profile of the Medabot Corp. office & factory complex with a stolid glance. "Incidents like the one that happened here. It isn't the attack itself that piqued my curiosity; rogue medabots are commonplace. What disturbs me was the ferocity of the rogue's attack. An entire sector of the complex was completely levelled." 

"Was it using the medaforce?" asked Ikki. 

Rokusho nodded. "Seems like it. Even rare and powerful melee weapons wouldn't be able to simply take entire building down unless the construction was shabby. The remnants of the sector looked more like a crater formed by some powerful blast." 

Dr. Aki appeared on the scene that moment. Ikki and the two medabots were stunned at his appearance. The famed founder of Medabot Corp. looked even older than he normally did, and dark circles accentuated his eyes. Looking up from a small clipboard he was holding, Aki smiled at the trio for a moment, then turned back to his clipboard. "Hi, fellas. Sorry I can't talk much. I've got paperwork to fill out and discussions to hold with Select Corp. This attack is going to set back our production facilities by 40%." The doctor sighed as he continued his damage assessment. "Our main lower appendage production center has been completely demolished, and several of the medapart welding facilities have been damaged." 

Metabee looked at the complex which was now completely surrounded by Select Corp. men and their medabot teams, cordoning off the facility boundaries. "Hey doc, was this medabot that attacked your plant something that your factory was working on?" 

Dr. Aki shook his head in a negative. "No. The medabot that attacked the plant was not one of our projects. It looks more like..." 

"Like what?" inquired Rokusho. 

"...Like Robattle-Research," finished Aki. 

"Robattle-Research?" asked Rokusho. "I've never heard of this company." 

"Robattle-Research is an important leader in the development of powerful medabots," explained Ikki, "as well as the development of robattle techniques, analysis, and medapart combination testing." 

"Sounds a little questionable to me," muttered Rokusho. "Are they even legitimate?" 

Dr. Aki nodded his head. "Yes. In fact, I was responsible for starting the Robattle-Research group. I even set up a special facility for them." 

"Where?" inquired the white-armored KWG-type. 

"A large space station called CLUSTER-001. They were supposed to work on developing new medaparts, as well as robattle analysis and testing. Unfortunately, an accident on the station sent the entire consortium plunging to the ground. CLUSTER-001 has now been shut down for about a year and a half now." 

"I remember," added Ikki. "I was there, as well as Metabee and some of my friends." 

Dr. Aki was about to reply when Koji and his medabot Sumilidon appeared on the scene, scrambling out of a taxi cab. Stumbling off the vehicle, Koji turned and cursed the cab driver before paying the fare. "Thirty-five!? With the ride I got, I should be paying about one-fourth of that rate!" 

Sumilidon said nothing. 

Turning his back on the cab driver, who drove away in a billowing cloud of dust, Koji walked up to the group. "Ikki, what's the news?" 

Ikki shrugged. "Nothing much. Other than the damage reported, there's little else to say on the matter. Erika's at her house running a background search on Luminoustag, as well as brewing up the latest story for her newspaper. Where's Karin, by the way?" 

Koji shrugged. "She's at home, apparently upset by the attack on Medabot Corp. Last time I called, she said she was busy, so I didn't say much more." 

Dr. Aki looked back at his clipboard. "Well kids, I've enjoyed chatting with all of you, but I've got a company to rebuild. See you all around." With that, Dr. Aki opened the gates and walked in, the gates automatically closing behind him once he was inside. 

Ikki's IMD (Instant Messaging Device) suddenly began to go off at that moment, bleeping for attention. Ikki turned on the the small communicator and opened the cover. He looked at the screen, and nodded before typing a single response and switching off the communicator. He then turned to the others. 

"It's a message from Erika and Brass. Erika says that she's got something on Robattle-Research and Luminoustag." 

"Well, what are we waiting around here for? Let's go and find out what she's got," muttered Koji. 

The group turned and scrambled in the direction of the nearest bus station, sprinting at a brisk pace.   


=====   


A pair of glowing red eyes lit up the darkness of a hall. An electronic voice soon followed. "I have done as you requested. You'd better have a good explanation for this pointless demolition and urban renewal you demanded, you simpleton." 

A second voice sounded into the darkness, giving counterpoint. "Do not answer back to me, Luminoustag. I am your master, and you would do well to remember that." 

The glowing red eyes slowly moved into a small spotlight that illuminated a section of the hall, showing themselves to be the eyes of the rogue blue KWG-type medabot. The medabot slowly moved forward into the spotlight, a dangerous edge in its voice as it spoke. "You are not my master, MACHINA, and you never were. I have my own agenda to follow, and the only reason I helped you in your concerns was that it crossed paths with my own." 

Another figure stepped into a second pool of light, revealing the same cloaked and hooded figure that had previously shown itself from the shadows. "You are fooling yourself, Luminoustag. You are now my slave, my pawn... my piece." 

Luminoustag silently stepped back into the shadows. "Be warned, fool. This is no game of chess. Your pieces may turn on you if you are not careful." 

The figure, MACHINA, nodded. "Be that as it may, your skills are needed for another assignment. Station yourself at the docks tonight, Pier 6. Wait for my orders." 

The glowing red eyes merely glinted in the shadows and then abruptly disappeared, indicating the medabot's absence in the hall. MACHINA sighed, then withdrew into the darkness as well, leaving to what distant voids and dark thoughts awaited his mind.   


=====   


Kaito shivered as a chilly wind blew through the city street. Helixbeetle, of course, had no protest about the sudden change in temperature. The two were walking down the main thoroughfare, silently taking in the city lights that shone in the darkness of the evening. 

Helixbeetle stared out into the array of neon signs and illuminated skyscrapers as his titanium-shod feet clinked against the cement sidewalk. After a long while, he spoke. "So much has changed since I last saw the world through these eyes. I could have hardly guessed that two years could change this place so quickly." 

"You've actually been outside the building?" wondered Kaito out loud. 

Helixbeetle nodded. "It only seems like yesterday that I was walking with him, taking in the sights and sounds of this very street. Everything was so different." 

"Like what?" 

Helixbeetle pointed upwards, his mechanized hand indicating a large elevated monorail above. "Like that commuter system. It wasn't there when I was walking with him two years back. Neither was that huge mini-mall." 

Kaito was about to affirm that fact when he suddenly noticed something stapled to an old telephone pole. "Hang on, Helixbeetle, I think I..." 

The youngster stared in surprise as he saw his picture on a piece of gummed paper, obviously made off of a photocopier. Helixbeetle read the caption below and let loose an electronic whistle. "Well, I'll be... that orphanage you stole away from is looking for you. They've got everything... your hair color, eye color, height, weight, heck, they've even got the clothes you were wearing." 

Kaito stared down in abrupt distaste as he noticed that he was still wearing the exact same clothes that were being described on the paper. Helixbeetle scratched his armored head. 

"Do you even want to go back?" 

Kaito vehemently shook his head. "No. I'm making my own destiny here. I'm not going back to that orphanage." 

"Is there something awful at that establishment?" 

"No, Helixbeetle, it's just that... I don't want to be stuck in classes day after day learning high-level math. I want to make my own future... As a medafighter." 

Helixbeetle shook his head before replying. "Well, I don't understand why you don't want to go back, but I respect your decision. Now, if we're going to move about in the daytime, we're going to have to find some other means of clothing to keep you disguised." 

Kaito thought hard. "Do you know of where to find clothes?" 

Helixbeetle shrugged. "I really have no idea."   


=====   


Nothing of interest was mentioned on the local TV news that night, except for one small intriguing item that was brought up on the late evening news. Apparently, it seemed that a local thrift store had been robbed. The only things that had been taken were a pair of baggy blue jeans, a heavy tan trenchcoat, a pair of street shoes, a blue long-sleeved sweater, a white T-shirt, and a pair of sunglasses. Select Corp. was thoroughly puzzled by the matter, and could find no explanation for the incident.   


=====   


Siden silently stood on the metal walkway of Pier 6, shrugging off the cold breeze that whistled through the dockside. The young teenager wondered if it was even worth trying to come to the ramshackle pier alone. 

_I should have brought Ashton..._

Thoughts of his reliable GWF-medabot filled his mind as he tried to shrug off the impending chill that wormed its way through his stomach. Siden looked at his medawatch. 8:58. Two minutes to go. 

Siden suddenly perceived movement at the far end of the pier. Curiosity getting the better of him, the brown-haired youth walked forward to the end of the walkway, his eyes narrowing as he tried to look in spite of the poor amount lighting around him. 

"Punctual as always, young Siden. Really, you impress me." 

Siden spun around as he found himself facing a hooded figure, flanked by four ominous-looking men. The youth looked the hooded figure over with a critical eye. "All right, I came here on your terms. Now tell me what it is that is so interesting," spat Siden. 

The figure stepped forward, revealing a mask that concealed the lower part of his face. "Now, now, young one, let us act like civilized gentlemen. We can either stand here and talk peaceably, or we can come to fisticuffs over this." Here, the figure paused. "And I don't think you'd want to get into fisticuffs over this; Am I right, Luminoustag?" the hooded figure questioned, looking up pointedly at a nearby warehouse roof. 

Siden started back in surprise. "Luminoustag?!" The young medafighter wasn't quite sure, but he almost felt certain that the hooded figure was smiling behind that damned mask of his. 

The hooded figure nodded. "Yes. He is right now part of my personal retinue, and a good one at that, wouldn't you agree, Luminoustag?" 

The blue medabot seemed to glare at the hooded man. "I am not part of your _retinue_, as you call it, MACHINA, and I am not a hired sword arm. I come merely because this meeting piques my interest," replied Luminoustag harshly. 

MACHINA shrugged and turned once more to Siden. "Ah, well. Luminoustag wasn't one to socialize. Now then, down to brass tacks, as the Americans say. You are, no doubt, curious as to the reason why Luminoustag attacked the local robattle arena, as well as the Medabot Corp. office building. The reason is simple. I am a medabot collector of sorts, and it often is quite amusing for me to find more... _challenging_ means of to find and gain more and more unusual and rare medaparts." 

"You ordered for those attacks to occur!?" A look of grim anger replaced the look of surprise on Siden's face. "Tell me why I shouldn't call the Select Corp. here and now!" 

The hooded man held up a placating hand. "Hear me out first. I have good reasons for doing so, and I hope that you will understand them as well." 

"Why are you revealing all this to me anyway? I have no interest in the stupid bantering of words! If you're here to do nothing but rant on about hidden agendas and meanings, this meeting is of no relevance to me," Siden testily replied. 

"Actually, this concerns you plenty," replied MACHINA. "I seek Robattle-Research's technological secrets. You still have connections with Robattle-Research, despite its status as a defunct medaparts development group. I want you to join me. I seek to use medabots to change the world... Change entire nations." MACHINA's voice suddenly took on a grandiose, idealistic fervor. "Think of it, Siden. With the technological breakthroughs of Robattle-Research at our disposal, we could accomplish anything! The world would be at our mercy! We could revolutionize governments!! Create a utopia!" 

Here, MACHINA held out a gloved hand. "What do you say, Siden?" the hooded figure said expectantly. 

Siden, regarded the outstretched gloved hand for a moment, and then smoothly gave his response. "Over my dead body," he retorted. "You really think I'd be stupid enough to align myself with a fellow as misguided as you are?" 

MACHINA lowered his hand, and sighed, shaking his head in resignation and disgust, before giving Siden a strange look. "As I had feared. You really are a fool, young Siden. Do you know what happens to a chess pawn that lets itself get surrounded by the enemy?" With those words, MACHINA's four lackeys that were flanking him suddenly began edging closer to Siden, surrounding him on all sides. 

Siden narrowed his eyes. "Just the devil I made you out to be... Whatever happens, you're not going to take me down without a fight!" The young medafighter snapped out his medawatch and pressed a button. "Transport Ashton!" 

There was no response. The dockside remained silent except for some gently lapping water. Siden stared in bewilderment at his medawatch, and tapped its LCD face. MACHINA suddenly burst out laughing. "I'm so sorry if you've been disappointed, young lad. You see, I know better than allowing you to call your little mechanical friend," he said smugly as he revealed a jamming device that he had been concealing inside his cloak. His smug tone of voice was suddenly replaced with a threatening edge. "I am sorry that I have to do this to you, Siden, but your usefulness in our little game has run out." 

With those words, the quartet of lackeys that were flanking MACHINA suddenly edged closer. 

"Screw y-" Siden was unable to complete his last insult before a heavy something made impact with the back of his head. His world spun, and the dockside wharf suddenly rushed upwards to meet his descending face.   


=====   


Kasumi stopped to a screeching halt, trying to catch his breath as Hiyori rushed up. "Any sign?" 

The brown-haired girl shook her head. "No. No word of Siden. And his medabot Ashton has told me that there was no message, no commands from him nor his medawatch. Do you think...?" 

Kasumi looked grimly up at the tufted clouds floating above. "I don't know, Hiyori. We've searched all over this neighborhood, and so far, there hasn't been a single trace of Siden anywhere. What about Fubuki or the others?" 

"Dunno. Fubuki said that she and Tolemi were going to check something out, but nothing as of yet from that." 

Fubuki came at that moment, tearing around a corner as she ran up to the two, waving a small envelope. "Guys! I think I've got something here! I found this in Siden's mailbox." 

Kasumi jumped to his feet. "What is it?" 

Hiyori snatched the envelope from Fubuki's hands and looked at the outside. "That's funny. No return address. No name of the sender." 

Kasumi took the envelope and tore it open, pulling out a letter that was once again printed on a crisp sheet of paper. The bespectacled medafighter quickly read a few lines, then turned grim as he finished. Wordlessly, he showed the two curious girls what it contained.   
  
  


Greetings, young one. 

As you might already know, your friend Siden is currently... indisposed as of now. But no worry, he is not dead... not yet, at least. If you are wondering about what I am after, or who I am, there is little you can do about that. Your friend Siden was too... overeager to learn the truth, and so he is paying a consequence that I cannot revoke. All will be made apparent in time. 

Until then,   
MACHINA 

P.S.: If you are dying for a clue, check the old HEX Corp. complex northeast of the docks. You will find a few answers, and even more questions, there.

  


After reading for a few moments, Fubuki spat. "This is bullsh--! What does this guy take us for? Ignoramuses?" 

Kasumi nodded. "Apparently so. What I don't get is why he would kidnap Siden, or even why Siden was trying to confront this guy. Siden's bold, but he isn't stupid. Something was apparently staked so high that Siden felt that it was necessary to place his own chips on the table..." 

"...And lost," concluded Hiyori. 

Fubuki stared at the letter for a few more minutes, then crumpled it up in disgust and stomped on it with a large boot. "This invitation sounds like a trap. Is this guy baiting us?" 

Kasumi looked to the docks. "I don't know; but one thing's for sure. I'm going to find out what happened to Siden." Tapping a button on his medawatch, he then made one quick statement. "Granbeetle, are you there?" 

There was a small click of static, and the voice of his KBT-type medabot sounded off. "Hear you loud and clear, Kasumi. Ashton and Bagstein are still poking around some of the communication records in Siden's main computer, but we haven't got anything concrete to follow yet. Got anything on your side?" 

"I've got a small lead on a place called HEX Corp. Maybe we can find something there. Meet me at the docks in one hour, we're going to do a little industrial espionage." 

Clicking off his communicator, he turned to the two girls. "Are you guys coming, or am I going to have to do this solo?" 

Hiyori smiled and shook her head in mock contempt. "You're a thick-skulled moron, Kasumi, but a brave one at that. Let's go." 

Fubuki turned, scratched her head, and sighed. "I can't tell whether these two guys love or hate eachother..."   


=====   


"Find anything yet, Erika?" inquired Ikki. The entire group including the Screws were assembled at Erika's house, clustering around her computer as she pulled up some information that she'd found earlier that day. 

Erika nodded. "I've got some files Brass and I managed to pull off of the inactive Robattle-Research data server. Here's what we've found so far: Some basic operative data on Luminoustag, the date of its creation, as well as the basic agendas that were behind Robattle-Research. It appears that Robattle-Research was working with a company called HEX Corp, a major distributor and developer of unusual and oftentimes powerful medaparts." 

"Who is behind this 'HEX Corp.'?" inquired Rokusho. 

"Someone by the name of Shingawa Tensuo, who was their CEO and their CDM, or Chief Development Member. A good-hearted man, by all accounts, but obssessed with his work. They were working on something called Project Helix when they were suddenly brought down by Tensuo's unexpected murder. Someone, by their company records, had apparently been wanting HEX Corp. to give them access to their research, and Tensuo refused." 

"And so he paid the price," muttered Rokusho. 

"What's Project Helix?" asked Metabee. 

"That was a restricted subject, and I couldn't get past the firewall matrix," mumbled Erika in an embarrassed tone. "Somebody was definitely trying to conceal Project Helix, though... It sounds like some sort of medabot development project." 

"Anything else?" asked Samantha. 

"Robattle-Research was apparently also into rare medals... That's what was used in both Kaiserbeetle and Luminoustag..." 

"...Which is why they're both so powerful when they use the medaforce," finished Ikki. "What specific type of medal are they?" 

Erika scrolled down the page. "Apparently a derivative of the original Kabuto and Kuwagata medals. They somehow transformed the medaforce foci inside the core of the medals, and came up with what they called the B-Kabuto and B-Kuwagata medals. They weren't pet projects, either." 

"Pet projects?" inquired Koji, lifting an eyebrow. 

"Those two medabots were commissioned exclusively by another entity code-named STARLEAF," continued Erika. "They were trying to turn medabots into war machines, which explains the heavy armamentation on the two medabots we've seen from Robattle-Research. However, they never got their medabots, since CLUSTER-001 was shut down before they could get their requests." 

"Like Kaiserbeetle," added Metabee. "Those guns on him were huge..." 

"So what's our next move?" yawned Sloan. "We can't stand around here all day." 

Ikki turned to the others. "I'm curious about this HEX Corp. Erika, do you have any more information on HEX Corp.?" 

Erika shook her head. "No. The main server there was too heavily protected, and even with Brass, I couldn't get past their third security line. If we want to get more information, we're going to have to find the main server and log in from there." 

Ikki thought for a moment. "Do you know where this main server might be?" 

Erika typed a few more commands into the workstation, and watched as lines of data flashed onto the screen. Turning to Ikki, she made her reply. "It's located at their main office complex. It's apparently located northeast of the docks, and south of Medabot Corp. It's in a secluded area, which is probably why no one even knew about its presence. The complex is fenced off though, and it's been locked shut." 

Samantha grinned. "Locks don't bother us. We could get that lock opened in three seconds flat!" 

Erika looked at the Screws' leader dubiously. "How do you know lockpicking?" 

"Who said anything about lockpicking?" retorted Samantha as she indicated Sloan and Totalizer. Sloan politely tipped his cap. Ikki face-faulted. 

"Well, I guess it's decided then. Koji, you get Karin and tell her to meet us at this location," Ikki muttered, "And tell her to bring Neutranurse. There's no telling what's in there, and I want everyone with their medabots ready to go. We're going to get to the bottom of this HEX Corp. Metabee, get some of your spare parts ready." 

"You got it!" affirmed Metabee as he scrambled down the stairs. 

Erika turned to Ikki. "Ikki, what are we going to be doing there?" 

"We're going to find their main server. I'll bring a PGM-type medabot that I got from Dr. Aki to help with the bypassing of the security systems that we might encounter." 

"A PGM-type?" inquired Spyke. 

"A Program-type medabot," explained Koji. "It's often used by software developers and hackers for security and networking purposes, and are excellent hacking devices." 

"Excuse me, Mr. Tenryou, but what happens once we get to the main server?" asked Brass. 

"We're going to be getting everything we can about this HEX Corp., and once we do, we're going to find out what's behind all of the attacks that happened this week," explained Ikki, "in order to make sure that what happened at that arena or at Medabot Corp. won't ever happen again."   


=====   


Helixbeetle sat in a corner, scratching his head as Kaito busied himself by typing away at a monitor. After pressing a few more keys, he sat back, nervously waited... 

And cursed. 

"Damnit! I still can't get this stupid server to get online!" 

Helixbeetle turned to his agitated medafighter. "Cool it, Kaito. I'm sure everything will work out in time." 

Kaito slammed his fists on the desk. "I know it, damnit, but... I'm trying to find some information, and this server's still inactive." The young teenager sat back in his rolling chair and sighed deeply. "This isn't good..." 

"What sort of information are you looking for?" 

"The Rosewood Coroner's office files, including autopsies of Mr. and Mrs. Shingawa." 

"Your parents?" 

Kaito nodded. "Once I find what caused their deaths, I'm going to look for leads starting from there. And once I figure out who killed them, I'm going to take my revenge." Kaito's eyes flashed dully with intermixed pain and anger. 

Helixbeetle got up from where he was sitting and stretched his metal limbs before walking over to Kaito's side. He looked at the display for a moment, then spoke up. "Listen, buddy. I admit that I know almost nothing about what happened to you before you found me, or even why you came. But one thing I want you to know is this: Is it worth trying to devote your life to revenge? Revenge is a poison, Kaito." 

Kaito shrugged wanly. "I don't know, Helixbeetle. On one hand, I know you're right, but on the other..." The young teenager shook his head as he got up from his chair. "This server won't respond to anything I try... What's with this server?!" Kaito felt angrier and angrier. "DAMNIT!!" Slamming a fist onto the keyboard, Kaito grunted as he felt his hand make impact with the plastic keys of the terminal. 

Suddenly, the screen of the terminal started to flash. A line of data ran across the screen, and halted for a moment.   
  
  
  


NETWORK NAVI SYSTEM ACTIVATED. SERVER ONLINE. 

  
  
  
  
  
  


The line of data disappeared, and a log-in screen came up onto the screen.   
  
  
  


NETWORK NAVI SYSTEM LOG-IN 

PLEASE TYPE IN LOG-IN ID OR INSERT ID CARD. 

  
  
  
  
  
  


Kaito stared in astonishment as the screen came up. He turned to Helixbeetle. "Network NAVI System? What's that?" 

Helixbeetle scratched his head. "Don't know. Seems to be the main server though. See if you can get it to run." 

Kaito ran to his duffelbag and pulled out the cardkey, dusting off a few clods of lint before inserting it into the cardslot. The computer emitted a small beep as it digested the information given to it from the cardkey. Kaito waited as several more lines of data scrolled across the screen.   


ID ACCEPTED. LOGGING IN...... 

010101101111000010101010101   
110101110101010101010101100   
001110101000101111000110010 

NETWORK LOG-IN COMPLETE.   


Kaito cautiously sat down as a familiar desktop screen made its appearance, consisting of several icons, apparently indicating programs that were present on the workstation and the LAN itself. Kaito was about to click on the INTERNET icon when a window popped up, displaying several lines of text.   


COMM PORT-1: NAVI - ADMIN   
CHATLINE OPENED 

**NAVI:>>**Administrator? Are you there?   


Kaito and Helixbeetle started in surprise. Helixbeetle looked at the screen for a moment, then nudged Kaito. "Well, go ahead, make a response." 

Kaito looked at the screen warily. "Are you sure about this?" he muttered, as he typed in a reply.   


**ADMIN:>>**Who are you?   


Kaito watched in amazement as a line of text appeared.   


**NAVI:>>**You are not the Administrator. Who are you?   


Kaito looked dubiously at the screen for a moment, then initiated a small dialogue.   


**ADMIN:>>**Shingawa Kaito. 

**NAVI:>>**Shingawa Kaito... Name bears resemblance to Shingawa Tensuo... Are you related? 

**ADMIN:>>**Yes. 

**NAVI:>>**What is your connection to the Administrator? 

**ADMIN:>>**Nephew to Shingawa Tensuo. Who are you? 

**NAVI:>>**I am the Administrator's friend. I am NAVI. 

**ADMIN:>>**NAVI? 

**NAVI:>>**I am NAVI. You are Shingawa Kaito. The difference is clear. You are not the administrator. 

**ADMIN:>>**Why are you talking like this? Are you even human? 

**NAVI:>>**I am not human... Are you human? 

**ADMIN:>>**I am. What sort of being are you? 

**NAVI:>>**...... 

**ADMIN:>>**What are you? 

**NAVI:>>**I am the HEX Corp. primary server. I am NAVI. 

**ADMIN:>>**So you are the server itself? 

**NAVI:>>**Yes. I am the HEX Corp. primary server. I am NAVI.   
  
  


**To Be Continued...**   



	5. Chapter 5: Convergence

**STANDARD DISCLAIMER: ** I do not own Medabots, Medarot, nor anything related to the trademark. All rights, permissions, official characters, and concepts are properties of Imagineer Co. and Natsume.   


**Medabots: Open Ring**   
  


**Chapter V : Convergence**

=====   
  
  


_"Two ends that meet do not always make one point."_   
**_- Mathematics for Losers_**

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


=====   


Kaito stared in bewilderment at his screen. "This NAVI is the server itself?" He cautiously sat back down on his chair and typed in another response on the chat window.   


**ADMIN:>>**Where did you come from?   


The NAVI system seemed to consider the question for a moment, then gave another enigmatic response.   


**NAVI:>>**Three sisters we were. One is gone, floating in space. The second is somewhere, drifting through the earth. I am the third. 

**ADMIN:>>**So... wait a minute... there are three of you? 

**NAVI:>>**Three sisters we were, three sisters we are, yes. 

**ADMIN:>>**The one that is floating in space... Where is it exactly? 

**NAVI:>>**Just like Tensuo. Always asking questions. My deceased sibling is on CLUSTER-001. Inactive, and probably never to see another line of binary again. 

**ADMIN:>>**CLUSTER-001? You had a sister server there? 

**NAVI:>>**Yes. 

**ADMIN:>>**And your other, where exactly is she? 

**NAVI:>>**Stolen. Gone, perhaps. Taken underground.   


Kaito tried to digest this information for a moment, and found that he could not think with the computer screen flickering. He typed in one last line of text.   


**ADMIN:>>**Will be back in an hour. Must consider the data given. 

**NAVI:>>**Acknowledged.   


The chat window suddenly disappeared, and the computer screen went blank. Kaito sighed and stared blankly at the screen. He turned to Helixbeetle. "Helixbeetle, you've never seen NAVI before?" 

The KBT-type medabot shook his head. "No. Boss never told me about the NAVI system, and I never even suspected its existence. The intelligence on it staggers me, though. It's almost as if it is... alive." 

Kaito nodded. "Obviously, this was just another reason why Uncle set up such a high security cordon around the premises. What's our next move?" 

Helixbeetle shrugged. "I dunno. What have you got in mind?" 

Kaito considered for a moment, absently rubbing his chin. "I think we'll go see an old friend of mine. He may be able to help us as far as giving us direction to our actions. His name's Tarou." 

Helixbeetle grunted. "Never heard of him. What sort of guy is this 'Tarou' fellow anyway?" 

"He taught me the basics of being a medafighter," explained Kaito as he smiled. "I think he may be able to help us in making our next step. We can't hang around here forever." 

"Neh, true... All right, we'll go see this Tarou fellow first thing tomorrow. But don't expect me to give him his trust rights immediately," muttered Helixbeetle with a doubtful tone. Kaito smiled at his medabot's personality. 

Out of nowhere, a klaxon started to blare abruptly. Kaito looked at Helixbeetle in confusion. "What's going on?!" 

The terminal screen that Kaito had been working at suddenly blinked back on. The computer chat window that had been up reappeared, with a new message from the NAVI server.   


**NAVI:>>**Intruders detected. Breach in security door No. 12... Wait. Data updated. Second breach has been detected in security door No. 20.   


Kaito quickly typed in another response.   


**ADMIN:>>**Can you get me a visual? 

**NAVI:>>**Unlikely. Cameras have been locked down from an unknown source. Internal security systems are our only option. Shall I send out the SEN-types? 

**ADMIN:>>**No. I'll take care of this myself. Is there any way that we can keep in touch? 

**NAVI:>>**........ 

**ADMIN:>>**Well? 

**NAVI:>>**I have set my comm frequencies to align with your medawatch. You may issue voice commands through it to me. 

**ADMIN:>>**Thanks.   


Shutting down the terminal, Kaito signalled to Helixbeetle to follow him out of the room.   


=====   


Kasumi silently crept into the dank hallway, shining his small flashlight down the corridor and trying to adjust his eyes to the darkness as he motioned for the others to follow him in. Granbeetle cautiously stared into an open doorway and paused, whistling in amazement. "Kasumi, look over here!" 

Kasumi and the others stared into the room, dumbstruck. Kasumi stammered in shock. "They're... they're all GRANBEETLES!" 

The entire room consisted of an inactive automated assembly line, with various Tin-Pets froze in the process of being loaded and equipped with Granbeetle medaparts. Blazer-Multi stared at the entire array of inactive KBT-types. "Why are there so many Granbeetles?" 

Hiyori scratched her head. "I can't quite figure it out. Didn't Siden tell us that there was only one Granbeetle developed by Robattle-Research?" 

Kasumi considered the inactive assembly line, then replied. "Yeah, that's what he told us, but... I don't know. Could this be part of what that letter's sender was hinting to us about?" 

Mizore eyed the inactive Tin-Pets with a suspicious eye. "I don't like this. Is THIS what HEX Corp. was doing? What would they want with a whole lot of KBT-types?" 

"Not just KBT-types," interjected Goutetsu. "Look there!" 

Another dead assembly line lay on the other side of the room, frozen in the process of assembling a different type of medabot, each consisting of blue-green swept-back horns, white die-cast armor, and two gleaming gold melee weapons, a sword and hammer. Ashton walked over to the array, looking at the dead medabot Tin-Pets in disapproval. "They're all Sonicstags." 

"Sonicstags?" asked Kasumi. "What are they?" 

Ashton turned to the others. "An experimental prototype KWG-type medabot that was developed at about the same time as Granbeetle, and the precursor to the Luminoustag project. Master Siden told me of these medabots, and showed me some of their schematics that he had access to." 

"So, this Sonicstag was a melee counterpart to Granbeetle. Where's the original?" asked Hiyori. 

Ashton was about to reply when a blunt, heavy object suddenly swung at the side of the GWF-type medabot's head. The gray-plated medabot barely managed to counter the blow with his own heavily-armored left fist, the parry making a sharp ringing sound as a pair of red, glowing eyes regarded the GWF-type. The dark figure that had swung the blow at Ashton stepped back in appraisal, nodding in respect. 

"Impressive. Most impressive. Who are you?" 

Hiyori stared at the dark figure that suddenly stepped out of the shadows into the beam of Kasumi's flashlight. "It's a Sonicstag!" 

The KWG-type nodded his white-armored head. "The genuine article, miss. Not like these fake replicas here." 

Fubuki stepped forward cautiously. "Fakes?" 

Sonicstag nodded again. "All of these medabots here are mere copies. I was brought here as a model from CLUSTER-001 for HEX Corp. to use." 

"CLUSTER-001? Then you were there as well when the disaster occurred?" asked Kasumi in amazement. 

"Yes. Afterwards, I was brought here by STARLEAF as an aid in their attempt to mass-produce me. I stayed here, a prisoner to their infernal attempt to make medabots into war machines." 

"War machines?" 

"Yes. During my 'stay' here, I overhead various conversations and remarks, and managed to roughly piece together what STARLEAF was attempting. STARLEAF is a splinter military organization, devoted to turning medabots from ordinary childrens' toys into military units. Granbeetle and I were only the first step in their plans. Although Granbeetle and I were disguised as ordinary KBT and KWG-type development projects, I learned through their schematics and files that they had actually given us more potent weaponry than what was necessary for test medabots." 

Granbeetle stared at Sonicstag. "So you're saying that my creators intended to make me as a war wagon?" 

"That is correct. However, STARLEAF was unable to continue their project due to the unexpected attack on CLUSTER-001 by a criminal gang that continues unknown to me. They attempted to continue their agenda by taking complete control over HEX Corp., killing the company's CEO in the process when he refused to cooperate with their plans. However, they were unable to continue in the CEO's place, since all of the company's financial backing was stored in accounts accessible solely by the same person they had murdered. Once the news of the CEO's death reached the bank, all of the financial assets were dispersed or claimed by other personages, and HEX Corp. went under from bankruptcy in a matter of days. STARLEAF, in their embarrassment, shelved the project they had been working on, and went underground ever since. I was abandoned, left to rot in this old building." Sonicstag turned and sighed as he glanced at the assembly line filled with copies. 

"What have you been doing here all this time?" asked Fubuki. 

"Many things," replied Sonicstag. "I have been pondering my purpose in being here. Trying to survive with what materials are left to me. There has been someone else here recently, though." 

"Someone else? Whom?" asked Tolemi. 

"A young teenage boy. I've been observing him, and he seemed to have come across a medabot in the complex." 

"A medabot? What kind?" asked Ashton in curiosity. 

"A KBT-type, and one carrying a medapart system even more advanced than either mine or Granbeetle's." 

"Did this teenager have spiked brown hair?" asked Kasumi. 

Sonicstag shook his head. "No. His hair was black, and his hair was arranged in a round, smooth manner." 

"So then it wasn't Siden," muttered Kasumi to the others. He turned back to the KWG-type. "Do you know where he is?" 

"Unknown. He roams throughout the complex with the medabot he found, and it seems unlikely that he knows anything about the agenda behind HEX Corp. or STARLEAF. It seems as if he's searching for some answers of his own." 

Kasumi absently rubbed his chin, considering the information that the KWG-type had just given him. "This is getting pretty deep now. First Siden disappears, and now we're faced with a problem bigger than either Siden or I had ever thought possible. Do you know this teenager's name, Sonicstag?" 

"The child's medabot calls him Kaito. I have not learned much else, although it is apparent that there is some sort of past connection between the KBT-type and his current medafighter." 

"Interesting," mumbled Fubuki. "This calls for further investigating. I think we should-" 

"Should what?" Everyone in the room spun around in alarm as two shadowy figures appeared in the doorway. 

Kasumi stepped forward. "Who are you? Are you Kaito?" 

A vaguely familiar, cynical voice answered back. "Kaito? Who's Kaito?" The two figures stepped forward, revealing the faces of Ikki Tenryou and Metabee. Erika, Koji, Karin, Rokusho, as well as the Screws and all of their respective medabots came following in their wake. 

Kasumi blinked in surprise. "Ikki Tenryou! To run into you here, of all places! What are you doing here?" 

Ikki grinned. "I could ask you the same question Kasumi. You haven't changed much since we last met on CLUSTER. To answer your question, we came here seeking information, although it seems that your white-armored KWG-type friend here seems to have disclosed much of what we were looking for. And you?" 

"Siden's disappeared, and we came here looking for answers as to his disappearance," replied Kasumi. "We were investigating when we came across Sonicstag here," he continued, indicating the mentioned KWG-type. 

Sonicstag gave Ikki a sour glance. "I did not intend for all of you to hear this as well. Whatever the result, one thing is apparent. STARLEAF has been behind much trouble here, and HEX Corp. became their sacrificial martyr." 

"A martyr?" asked Metabee. 

"What he means," replied Erika, "Is that HEX Corp. paid for whatever crimes STARLEAF had committed, despite their apparently innocent position in the matter." She turned to Sonicstag. "Do you happen to know where HEX Corp.'s main server is located here? We've been searching for hours inside this funhouse." 

Sonicstag shook his head. "No. I never came across HEX Corp.'s main server, and whatever computer systems they may have possessed are apparently cleverly concealed. I am sorry, but I am unable to aid you in this matter." 

An unknown voice suddenly echoed into the chamber. "He may not know, but I DO."   


=====   


Kaito Shingawa stepped into the room, eyeing the motley array of schoolkids with an impassive stare. Helixbeetle stepped to his side, silently regarding the other medabots with a similar expression of stolidity. 

Ikki finally managed to find his voice and reply. "Are you... Kaito?" 

Kaito Shingawa paused for a moment in slight surprise, but then shrugged. "Yes. I am Shingawa Kaito, and this is Helixbeetle, my partner and medabot. I see that I've failed to keep my identity secret." 

Koji knelt down beside Helixbeetle and scrutinized its construction with a practiced eye. "I've never seen a medabot like this... Where did you get it?" 

"That is of little concern at the moment. What is important is the reason why all of you are here," replied Kaito. He turned to Erika. "So, you are curious as to the location of the main server?" 

Erika nodded. "We were looking for some answers in connection to the recent attacks on Medabot Corp. Some sources I managed to find indicated that a few clues were located here, at the HEX Corp. company data storage server." 

Kaito looked at her with a hard eye, then shrugged. "If you are referring to NAVI, I can't s-" 

"Wait a minute," interrupted Kasumi. "Did you say... NAVI?" 

Kaito nodded. "Yes. Why do you ask?" 

Kasumi turned to Hiyori. "Remember the CLUSTER-001 main computer? It was called NAVI, remember?" 

The brown-haired girl nodded. "That's right. NAVI monitored the entire station, in fact." 

Kaito cut in. "So you were on CLUSTER-001?" 

Kasumi nodded. "All of us were. During the disaster there, in fact." 

Kaito whistled before turning to the group. "Well, I've got to hand it to you all, you're a group of tough kids. I was down on _terra firma_ when I heard of the incident, but I never got to hear who it was that brought the crew back down safely." 

He looked at Kasumi. "Getting back to the point, I was rooting around a workstation inside the complex about an hour ago when I came across the main network server here... It called itself NAVI, and mentioned to me that it had two sister servers... One, now inactive on derelict CLUSTER-001, and another which is currently missing." 

Ikki stepped forward. "So, there's other NAVI computers?" 

Kaito nodded. "Appears to be so. This seems to be the second NAVI server out of the known three in existence, and seems to have been acquainted with my uncle, whom you all know as the late CEO of HEX Corp." 

"So where is this NAVI server that you found?" asked Erika. 

"Everywhere and anywhere," answered Sonicstag. "From what I learned while in STARLEAF's possession, the NAVI servers were designed to operate, interact, and output feedback in any room of the structure in which they were installed... which explains why they're so sought after for data and calculations storage. If what I've said is correct, then we could get an output screen even in this production chamber." 

"Sounds like a good idea," said Kaito. Flipping the cover of his medawatch, the young teenager spoke a single line into his on-board communicator. "NAVI, enable output screen and audio interaction control at my current location." 

Immediately, a large blue screen emitted itself on one of the vacant walls, revealing a large communications window and data screen. Kaito nodded in approval as a feminine, digitized voice came through one of the nearby intercom speakers. 

"NAVI standing by. What is your request, Administrator?" 

Kaito turned to Erika. "So, miss, what did you want from NAVI?" 

Erika frowned at Kaito. "Just call me Erika. I need everything about STARLEAF's projects as well as all information on the Luminoustag and Kaiserbeetle medabots." 

Kaito nodded, then turned back to the screen. "NAVI, pull up everything on STARLEAF, STARLEAF projects, and all information on medabots Luminoustag and Kaiserbeetle. I don't want anything missed." 

NAVI beeped once, then made its reply. "Command affirmed. Accessing data..." A massive proliferation of data and schematics began pouring out onto the data screen, flashing as several files made their appearance simultaneously. 

Erika began gesticulating for it to slow down. "Not so fast! I need time to get this data saved... Ikki! Get that PGM-type medabot out!" 

"You got it! Transport Discdrive!" Ikki pushed a button on his medawatch as a strange, lanky medabot appeared in the room. Samantha stared at it in some distaste. 

"That's your PGM-type medabot? Looks like it was still in the maintenance shop when you got it out..." Samantha wasn't kidding, as the Program-type medabot Discdrive essentially looked like a collection of exposed wires, cables, data ports, disk drives, computer motherboards, and circuits that were arranged into a vaguely-bipedal configuration. 

Discdrive angrily turned and glared at the Screws' leader. "Hey, watch it, lady! I've got more circuits and data connections than what you've got in that cranium of yours!" 

"Why you little-!!" 

"Will you two knock it off!?" yelled Ikki. "We've got things to take care of, and I've still got that homework to finish!" 

Fortunately, the two managed to calm down soon enough, and in a matter of moments, Discdrive was connected to a high-speed data port, dumping everything that NAVI was pulling out into its hard drives. It soon finished its download with a small click and disconnected itself from the outlet. 

Erika nodded in approval. "With this information, we might be able to get a clue as to Luminoustag's habits, as well as its origins from STARLEAF. Not to mention, this is going to make a killer story for my newspaper! I can't wait! When I-" 

Sonicstag abruptly interrupted. "Miss Erika, if I may say this politely, releasing this sort of data to the public is dangerous, besides being volatile. We won't know what the public's reaction to STARLEAF and Robattle-Research will be once they find out that medabots were being turned into war material. Forget even using this for the mass media." 

Erika's face fell. "But..." 

"Sonicstag's right," Rokusho added. "We don't know what will happen if this sort of information gets out to the public. What are they going to think of Medabot Corp., which founded Robattle-Research, if they heard that these medabots were being used for military development? It could threaten the existence of medabots the world over." 

Erika sighed in disappointment. "All right, all right... I promise I won't use it for public release. But I'll still need it to figure out some answers." 

"That's good enough," replied Kasumi. "Now, let's get that information properly analyzed and see if we can find an answer to these attacks as well as Siden's whereabouts." He turned to Kaito. "Care to come along?" 

Kaito shrugged. "I don't see any reason not to. Plus, I'm curious as to this 'STARLEAF' that you're constantly referring to." He turned to the output screen that NAVI was displaying, and muttered a command into his medawatch. "NAVI, power down for a bit. I'm going off to check out the files that were accessed. Keep an eye on things." 

NAVI beeped an affirmation.   


=====   


"Well, well." The entire group was standing clustered around a workstation at Siden's mansion-home, which Kasumi suggested would be a better place to look over the data, due to its higher processor speed. Erika was sitting in dumbfounded amazement, while the others were standing in a similar attitude of disbelief. Kaito and Helixbeetle followed suit. 

The data they had pulled up from NAVI proved to be something that changed their entire outlook on possibilities in the "medabot theory". While there were basic schematics and data reports which essentially elaborated on what they already knew about Robattle-Research and STARLEAF's activities, some of the files they had discovered proved to be nothing short of groundbreaking. 

Besides the files on STARLEAF's agenda as well as Kaiserbeetle and Luminoustag, they had also pulled up several related files, including one that dealt with Project Helix. When Erika opened the Project Helix data, the information that appeared on the screen was an absolute shocker. 

Fubuki was the first to break the silence. "Who would have imagined... The medal involved in Project Helix is a hybrid." 

Sloan's face skewed in concentration. "Hybrid?" 

Erika looked up from her seat and nodded. "Something like that. It appears that when STARLEAF was working on Kaiserbeetle and Luminoustag, they were also working towards making perfect hybrid medabots through Robattle-Research combining the awesome firepower of the medaparts already developed, and a prototype medal core that would endow the medabot with powerful intelligence and personality. Helixbeetle was apparently the first of these 'hybrids', and involved a medal that was derived by 'crossing' two medals together inside a specially-designed smelter. The end result was that the two medals became joined, resulting in a new medal that was then dubbed a 'Hybrid-type' medal, one that interlocked the strengths of a B-Kabuto medal and a medal designed specifically for a powerful personality." 

Helixbeetle looked down at his armored torso. "But... what does that mean? Wouldn't this... STARLEAF want me to be dumb and stupid, so that they could, you know, control me easily?" 

"STARLEAF didn't count on one thing," replied Erika. "Shingawa Tensuo. It appears that while he was still alive, he found out about Project Helix, he took direct control over its development and tweaked the configuration somewhat... So that the resulting medabot, Helixbeetle, would be unfit for STARLEAF to use." 

"So, he directly sabotaged the project," cut in Metabee, still in disbelief over what he'd seen. "But why would he entrust Helixbeetle to Kaito?" 

Ikki shrugged. "Who knows? Only Kaito will be able to figure it out in time... I, for one, am staggered by the medal's abilities itself as well. It seems that Shingawa Tensuo made a notation about several medaforce abilities he observed while he worked with Helixbeetle. Besides being able to replicate several of the abilities in Kaiserbeetle's medal, it seems that Helixbeetle also has the ability to utilize the medaforce in order to completely restore its physical system back to normal." 

"That probably explains why Helixbeetle was completely back up to full working order when he used the medaforce on those Sentry-type medabots the first day I found him," muttered Kaito. He turned to the others. "I had a feeling that Helixbeetle's medal was something out of the ordinary, but I didn't expect it to be this powerful. I'm going to have to train some more and practice with Helixbeetle before I can even think of robattling anybody." He sighed. "If I try to use Helixbeetle now, he'll be too powerful to handle." 

"Hey, that's nothing," Metabee replied. "You should have seen how long it took before Ik-ster and I managed to start robattling together as a team." 

Mizore spoke up. "So, what's our next move? Even though we've found some information related to the incident that happened at Medabot Corp., how is that going to lead us any closer to Luminoustag or Siden?" 

Erika grinned. "Easy. Our next step is to investigate companies and independent developers that were associated with Robattle-Research in the development of rare medaparts and medals. And what better place to look than this?" She clicked on the internet-access window and typed in an address that brought up a large electronic flyer. 

Karin softly read the flyer out loud. "The Annual Medabot Expo/Convention, beginning tomorrow. What's that?" 

"The Medabot Expo is an annual event that unveils, announces, and makes deals in newly developed and rare medabots, medaparts and medals," answered Ashton. "And, by all means, it is indeed a logical place to continue our search for Siden and Luminoustag." 

"So what are going to be doing there?" asked Spyke. "We're not going to be poking around the booths, are we?" 

"Actually," said Ikki, "that's exactly what we're going to do. We're going to look around the booths, displays, and pose ourselves as typical bystanders at an expo. With some luck, we'll find some leads that could point us in the direction of both Siden's whereabouts and Luminoustag's habits." 

"Then it seems that we're all going," mumbled Goutetsu. "So, where are we all going to meet up to go to this expo?" 

"We'll be going separately, and then meet up at the expo grounds," replied Erika. "Everybody's going to have to keep a low profile, which means no robattling nor showing off of one's medabots. We're here to gather information, not attention." 

"Then it's agreed," added Kasumi. "We'll all meet tomorrow at the expo separately, and then we'll start our search. Now let's all get going home and get some sleep. I have a feeling that it's going to be a long day at the expo..."   
  
  


**To Be Continued...**


	6. Chapter 6: Mistrust

**STANDARD DISCLAIMER: ** I do not own Medabots, Medarot, nor anything related to the trademark. All rights, permissions, official characters, and concepts are properties of Imagineer Co. and Natsume.   


**Medabots: Open Ring**   
  


**Chapter VI : Mistrust**

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_"Trust is never given... It is always earned."_   
**_- Verse IX of XII_**

  
  
  
  
  
  


=====   


"I've never seen so many people in one place! Even the HEX Corp. building was small deals compared to this..." 

"Shut your faceplate, Helixbeetle... We need to keep our cover." 

Kaito and Helixbeetle were scoping out the scenery at the open-air Medabot Expo, besides looking for Ikki and the others. Sonicstag had been left behind to watch over NAVI and keep an eye on things in general. But, despite Helixbeetle's apparent lack of stealth in the operation, Kaito had to admit that there was a massive amount of people gathering at the expo. Long ranks of booths had been set up, each displaying some new or unknown medapart or medal; or discussing new tactics and developments in the medabot industry. 

One thing that caught Kaito's particular interest was the large podium at the middle of the expo grounds, which was covered by a large white tabard that enveloped some sort of rectangular-shaped object. 

"I see that the young pupil still has his prodigious amount of curiosity." 

Kaito spun around in alarm, and then stopped dead in shock as he found himself staring into a pair of familiar careworn eyes. Tarou smiled as his eyes sparked with barely contained joy from recognizing his student. Grayfang still stood next to him, battered as ever. 

Kaito stepped back in a daze, then slowly began to recollect himself as he managed to give a formal bow and greeting. "Greetings, Tarou, sir. It's been a long time. Have you heard from Nitane lately?" 

Tarou's smile broadened. "Hah! Nitane is all right... Still in school, and learning topics in advanced radiology. Still disrespectful of the elderly, as always. You needn't give that sort of greeting to me. I've outlived such trivial matters." He turned his attention to the rows of booths as he continued. "Where have you been, young one? When I heard about the unfortunate incident regarding your parents, I came as soon as possible to check up on you... And you simply disappeared." 

Kaito looked at the ground in an embarrassed manner. "I... It has a lot to do with this medabot here next to me," he managed to stutter, indicating Helixbeetle. 

Tarou bent down and gave Helixbeetle a friendly grin. "Ah... So our young medafighter has been off pursuing his own dreams. This is quite a find you have here, young Kaito. I sense a lot of power in this model." 

Kaito wasn't sure, but it seemed as if there was a gleam of pride in Helixbeetle's visual sensors. 

Kaito nodded as he spoke up. "By the way, sir... Is it possible to pick up from where we left off? I still have much that I didn't get down..." 

Tarou gave a deprecating wave of his hand as he replied. "In good time, in good time, young one. Currently, we've got bigger matters on our hands. The orphanage administration is having fits looking for you. Do you know how much worry you're giving them by your disappearance?" 

"I..." 

"You're still quite impulsive, although I must say not as much as when I first met you. Next time, try and use a more discreet approach to a problem." 

"Yes sir." 

Tarou smiled again. "Now, buck up, young one. You've still got a long life ahead of you, so keep good cheer. Now, where were we? Ahh, yes. It seems that you're being quite the datamonger at this expo... Am I not correct?" 

Kaito reluctantly nodded. "Yes... Did you hear about the attack on Medabot Corp.?" 

Tarou nodded gravely. "I did... Quite sad. It is said that a medabot becomes a rogue when it has lost its sense of purpose, or meaning as to its existence." 

"So... you're saying that Luminoustag is puzzling over his own reason for being existent?" 

"Is that what the medabot's name was? Yes, that's what I'm saying. It appears that this rogue is acting out of confusion, due to his doubts as to his place in this world. All medabots need a reason for existing, even if it's mundane. That's true for all medabots." 

"I see... I've got to go now, though. Goodbye, sir... I'll call you sometime..." said Kaito, waving as he began walking away. 

"It's Tarou. There's no need to 'sir' me," chortled Tarou with a barking laugh, as he returned the farewell.   


=====   


"Gotten anything yet?" asked Samantha. Peppercat sat nearby, checking out the nearby robattles. 

"Nothing yet, boss. All they're talking about in my area are how chainguns work and the theories behind trap-type parts," muttered Sloan. Totalizer merely gave a shrug. 

"Same thing here," said Spyke forlornly. "Not a single thing that would be of interest. Crosserdog accidentally tripped over a few display stands, but that's about it." As if in answer, Crosserdog appeared around a bend, tangled up in some conduits and circuit boards, and wearing a dazed look on its face. 

"Hey!" The Screws gang turned around to see Ikki and Erika running towards them and waving a greeting. Metabee and Brass were following close behind. Samantha waved back in reply. 

"Anything of interest?" asked Erika. 

The Screws all shook their heads glumly. "We've been looking this place over for hours, but all those stupid street hawkers are talking about is how great their newest products are," grumbled Samantha. "Have you guys seen the others yet?" 

"Koji and Karin are busy checking out the east section," replied Ikki. "Kasumi and the others are checking the north area of the expo. As for Kaito... Have you guys seen him yet?" 

"Nuh-uh," Spyke answered back. "We haven't seen a sign of him. I wonder if he's late..." 

Just then, a distinguished-looking man stepped onto the huge platform in the center of the exposition, where the object being covered continued to sit. Everyone in the expo immediately grew quiet. Spyke looked at the display curiously. "What's going on?" he whispered to Ikki. 

"The representatives from Medabot Corp. are about to reveal their newest release model," Ikki whispered back. "There's been a lot of talk concerning this particular one, since this one is a real show-stopper, from what I hear." 

The representative from Medabot Corp. walked up to the concealed object, and, eschewing any sort of ceremony, promptly removed the white cloth with a flourish. Everyone gasped and several people started to applaud, as the concealed object showed itself to be a shiny new medabot, standing on a mounting rig. 

"Well, I'll be," remarked Totalizer. "It's quite a looker!" 

Totalizer's remark wasn't just cheap talk. The new medabot was a Valkyrie, or VAL-type. The Valkyrie line was first developed by Medabot Corp. in answer to growing demands by young female medafighters for XX, or Female-type tinpet medapart sets that packed a powerful punch in combat, and yet looked great on the showroom floor. The Valkyrie-type medabot that stood on the podium was sheathed in full white-and-gold plate armor, and carried with it a large polearm weapon, as well as a massive kite shield. Strange-looking runes adorned the helm, shield, blade, as well as the legs of the medabot. 

Erika nodded in approval as well. "Looks awesome! Let's go check it out!" Pulling Ikki by the hand, she dragged the poor boy across the expo grounds and managed to struggle through the crowd that was clustering around the podium. Dusting Ikki off in apology, she then turned her attention to the medabot. A large placard in front of the VAL-type explained its designation. 

Ikki read the placard out loud. "It says that the medabot's name is Skyelder... and that its specialty is 'Crystal Halberd'. Hmmm... Wonder what it does," he muttered, as he focused his eyes on the large, shining polearm weapon that was held tightly in the VAL-type's right hand. 

Suddenly, Metabee noticed something suspicious near the edge of the crowd. "Hey, Brass," he whispered. "Check out those guys over there..." 

"Those gentlemen in the black suits?" Brass asked. Then, she suddenly realized what she'd seen. "Oh no..." 

"They're RubberRobos!" cursed Metabee.   


=====   


Over on the other side of the podium, Kaito and Helixbeetle appraised the VAL-type in frank admiration. Helixbeetle whistled. "Wow... Skyelder's a cute one..." 

"Helixbeetle!" muttered Kaito through clenched teeth as he elbowed his medabot. "Not so loud! They'll hear you!" 

"Whoops... Hehe, sorry," Helixbeetle said sheepishly in reply. "Almost forgot where I was. By the way, Kaito, so that was Tarou you were talking to?" 

Kaito nodded. "Yeah. Like I told you back at the HEX Corp. building, he was the guy who taught me the basics of being a medafighter. In any case, we should get going..." 

Kaito's sentence was suddenly interrupted by a massive explosion that rocked the ground and blinded everyone in the area that was looking at the podium. When everyone around the managed to readjust their eyesight, a collective gasp of shock and dismay rolled throughout the crowd as they fixed their eyes onto the center stage. 

The VAL-type medabot had vanished from the mounting rig without a trace. 

Immediately, the Medabot Corp. representative pulled out his cell phone and began to dial Select Corp., while other people continued to look around in shock. 

Amidst the chaos Kaito abruptly spotted Ikki and Erika, who were talking with Metabee and Brass. Kaito yelled a greeting and waved to the quartet while running towards them, followed by Helixbeetle. "Hey, guys! Did you see what happened?" 

"That's what we're trying to figure out," replied Ikki with a grimace. "Metabee and Brass told us that they saw some RubberRobos standing around near the platform when the show suddenly fell through the floor." 

Helixbeetle scratched his head. "RubberRobos?" 

"The RubberRobos are a group of medafighters bent on getting their hands on rare medals," explained Brass. "They even went so far as to go after Metabee's medal at one point." 

"I don't like this," muttered Metabee. "Did that Valkyrie-type have some sort of fancy medal? I wonder..." 

Metabee's train of thought was suddenly derailed as Kasumi and his gang of friends appeared on the scene. Kasumi was the first to speak. "We heard the explosion as we came from the parking lot. What happened?" 

"A new medabot that was being unveiled by Medabot Corp. was stolen," explained Erika. "They've already got Select Corp. agents rushing here even now... The expo's probably going to be cancelled because of this." 

"Aw, nuts!" snapped Goutetsu. "And I was eager to see some new STN-type parts too!" 

"That wasn't why we came here, you moron!" yelled Hiyori. "We came here to find information that might lead us to Siden!" 

"Calm down, Hiyori..." Kasumi urged. He turned to Ikki. "Do we have any alternatives?" 

"Well, we could go to Medabot Corp. and ask questions there," Ikki replied. "Of course, we might not be able to get in. Medabot Corp. is still closed off to the public due to Luminoustag's attack." 

Several sirens abruptly blared into the air, signalling the arrival of Select Corp. gunships and armored vehicles, as Select Corp. agents and medabots began pouring into the expo grounds. 

"Whatever we do," muttered Fubuki, "we'd better leave this place. It's chaotic enough right now as it is without Select Corp. running in and turning the place upside-down."   


=====   


The next day found Kaito and Helixbeetle walking walking about town, still wondering about what exactly had happened there at the expo. Ikki and the others were off trying to find information leading to Siden's whereabouts and more information regarding STARLEAF. The only question in Kaito's mind, however, was... 

_How did the perpetrators manage to sneak off with an entire medabot without being spotted by someone?_

Kaito shook his head. Helixbeetle looked at him with a scrutinizing glance. "Something bothering you, Kaito?" 

"It's just that... How did the crooks manage to sneak off with a whole medabot without being noticed? I know that a medapart is fairly easy to steal, but an entire medabot? This wasn't just some low-level crime... This was a professional job if they managed to sneak off the Tin-Pet and all." 

"HELLPP!!!" 

Kaito abruptly turned and heard a scream from a nearby alley. "You hear that, Helixbeetle?" 

"Yeah... C'mon!" 

The two cautiously looked into the alleyway and found themselves looking at a teenage girl, clothed in strange shiny clothing of some sort, and wearing large black sunglasses. The girl seemed to be cornering a young boy and his medabot, who were trying as hard as possible to run up against the end of the alley. 

"Fine with me. Kid! Hand over your medabot and medal!" 

"N-no! I took months just to save up to buy him! You can't have Tankshell!" 

"Damnit!! I can't take this sort of injustice anymore!" Kaito exclaimed. "I'm going to teach her a lesson!" The medafighter sprang to his feet and ran into the alley. 

"Kaito! Wait!" Helixbeetle yelled. 

"Got anything better to do than bullying little kids!?" Kaito shouted. The girl turned, and started back in surprise when she saw the young teenager standing behind her. 

"You're a pretty gutsy fellow to try and take me on," grinned the girl. "Tell you what. If you can beat me in a robattle, I'll let this kid and his medabot go. If you lose..." 

"Yeah?" challenged Kaito. 

"...You're giving me whatever medals and medaparts you've got on ya," she finished. 

"You're on!" yelled Kaito. He turned to Helixbeetle. "C'mon! We've got a robattle!" 

Helixbeetle sighed, shook his head, and stepped out from his hiding place. "You're taking an awful risk here, Helixbeetle. I hope you know what you're doing..." 

The girl grinned, and then made a slight bow. "I guess it would be proper manners for introductions to occur first. The name's Sharkscout, of the RubberRobo gang!" 

"A RubberRobo?!" exclaimed Kaito in some surprise. "Were you part of that theft at the expo yesterday?!" 

"That's what you're about to find out!" crowed Sharkscout as she revealed her medawatch. "Transport Skyelder!!" 

Before anything else could be said, a blinding flash of blue light shone onto the field, revealing the VAL-type medabot onto the field, holding the massive crystalline polearm and kite shield with all the poise of a veteran warrior. 

Skyelder turned and saluted Sharkscout. "Ready and raring to go!" 

"How can Skyelder willingly serve a person that stole her!?" muttered Kaito in disbelief to Helixbeetle. 

Helixbeetle turned and sighed. "Doofus, don't you remember? Skyelder didn't have a medal at the expo! She was simply an inactive shell! Sharkscout's obviously using a medal that only obeys her!" 

"Hey, are you guys going to gab all day? We've got a robattle to start!" taunted Sharkscout. 

"I'm ready whenever you are!" retorted Kaito. "Give me your best shot!" 

A motorcycle suddenly tore through the alley and came to a screeching crash into a pile of trash cans. Kaito and the others in the alley stared and facefaulted as the motorcycle's helmeted rider scrambled out of the garbage and dusted himself off, unhurt. The motorcyclist promptly tore off the helmet, revealing the face of... 

MR. REFEREE!! 

The well-known mediator of robattles everywhere brushed off the last of the garbage and turned to the two medafighters. "Then it's agreed! This is a one-on-one conditional robattle! Loser must submit all medaparts and medals to the victor! Medafighters ready!?" 

"Ready!" yelled Kaito into his medawatch. 

"Anytime now!" replied Sharkscout. 

"MEDABOTS, ROOOOBATTTLLEEE!!!" 

Kaito wasted no time in giving his command. "Helixbeetle! Start with a Tetracannon volley!" 

A multiple volley of energy bolts crackled down the length of the alley as Skyelder barely blocked the attack with her kite shield. Sharkscout grinned smugly, and then gave her own command. "Skyelder! Use Evader!" 

The VAL-type medabot, in response, promptly began to vault from one side of the alley to the other, somersaulting off the sides of the buildings. 

"Helixbeetle! Railgun!" Kaito ordered. 

"You got it!" Helixbeetle affirmed as he aimed and shot a sizzling beam from the huge cannon mounted on his left arm. Skyelder, however, merely dodged with ease and continued to vault around the alley. Kaito began to get nervous. 

"Helixbeetle! Try something else! Tetracannon!" 

Helixbeetle shot another volley and then cursed as Skyelder dodged every shot. "Damnit! Kaito, I'm not getting anywhere with this! She's too fast!" 

Sharkscout smiled smugly again as she gave her next command. "Skyelder! Crystal Halberd!" 

The Valkyrie-type abruptly vaulted off the left side of the alley and lunged forward, swinging the polearm in a wide, scything arc. There was a jarring, cracking noise as the polearm's glassy blade cut into Helixbeetle's legs, and the next moment, Skyelder vaulted and flipped backwards, staying out of range before Helixbeetle could fight back. 

Helixbeetle tried to move, and then suddenly cursed again as he realized that his legs wouldn't move. "Kaito! My legs..." 

"Damnit! They're frozen solid!" 

The gyros in Helixbeetle's legs had been frozen solid by the arcane blade on the polearm that Skyelder wielded. Sharkscout smiled at the result and turned to Kaito. "It's over. You've lost!" Turning to Skyelder, she gave another command. "Skyelder! Use Evader again, and go for another attack run!!" 

"I refuse to accept that! Helixbeetle! Try using Tetracannon!" 

Helixbeetle managed to elevate himself to one knee and blasted another volley of energy bolts, but Skyelder proved to be too agile and vaulted over every single shot. Kaito steeled himself to focus, and then noticed something... 

Smiling, he then issued a new command. "Helixbeetle! I've got an idea! Use your Hunter-Radar!" 

Sharkscout shrugged. "Whatever... Like that's going to do any good!" 

Helixbeetle, however, had a gleam in his visual sensors as his radar system began to engage. He then turned to Kaito. "Any time now, buddy!!" 

Sharkscout wasn't waiting. "All right, Skyelder! Finish him off! Crystal Halberd!!" 

The VAL-type somersaulted off the alley walls, and then lunged forward once more, raising her polearm... 

At that critical moment, Kaito yelled his command. "Now, Helixbeetle! Railgun!!" 

"IN YOUR FACE!!!!!!" Helixbeetle bellowed, as he raised his Railgun and fired. The beam sizzled forward, and caught Skyelder point-blank in her faceplate as a massive, smoking explosion resulted from the impact. There was an abrupt, loud crashing noise as something heavy and metallic crashed to the ground. 

"No!! SKYELDER!!" shrieked Sharkscout. Even before the smoke cleared, the RubberRobo knew that she'd lost. 

Skyelder lay on the ground, her faceplate utterly trashed and torn apart from the tremendous energy of Helixbeetle's railgun. A gleaming, golden medal with a picture of a mermaid emblazoned on it lay nearby, almost as if unaware of the battle that had occurred. 

Mr. Referee gave the signal, ending the match. "FUNCTION CEASED!! THE WINNER IS KAITO AND HELIXBEETLE!!" He then nodded, and started to walk away. "Chow for now," he muttered, as he looked at the motorcycle he wrecked. "I've got to explain to the bike shop what happened..." 

Kaito and Helixbeetle high-fived. "All right!! We've won!!" 

"We won our first robattle!" 

However, Kaito's elation was short-lived as he noticed the girl still kneeling next to Skyelder, a torn expression of grief and anger on her face as she looked up at Kaito. "You... How could a twerp like you beat me!!?" She shook her head, and her expression softened, as tears started to bead up in her eyes. "It's my loss, anyway... I was too overconfident... Go on, take her... Take Skyelder..." 

She picked up the Mermaid-type medal lying on the ground and was about to proffer it to Kaito, but he suddenly shook his head and waved it away. "No... I'll let you keep her. I wasn't in desperate need of those medaparts anyway. I just wanted you to stop bullying that kid," he mumbled, as he watched the small kid and his TOT-type medabot look up at him with gratitude and scramble away. 

"But..." She looked at Skyelder's body, which still lay motionless on the ground, and then her face darkened in sudden anger as she turned back to Kaito. "No! I don't need your sympathy! I don't need anyone's!!" 

Pressing a button on her medawatch, she recalled Skyelder's wrecked body and began to dash away, before turning back to Kaito. "Next time we meet, don't expect me to go easy on you! We WILL meet again!" She then dashed down the street, leaving Kaito and Helixbeetle staring after her. 

"Weird girl..." muttered Helixbeetle. He turned to Kaito. "By the way, why did you let her keep Skyelder? Shouldn't we have taken Skyelder and returned her?" 

Kaito shrugged in an embarrassed sort of way. "I dunno. You could say that I was unwilling to do that since Select Corp. can get awfully suspicious of anybody that doesn't look respectable..." 

"Are you saying that I'm not respectable!!?" 

"No, that's not it, I swear...!!" 

The setting sun found the two walking home, one mockingly accusing, the other jokingly mollifying.   
  
  


**To Be Continued...**   
  
  
  



	7. Chapter 7: Doubting Distraction

**STANDARD DISCLAIMER: ** I do not own Medabots, Medarot, nor anything related to the trademark. All rights, permissions, official characters, and concepts are properties of Imagineer Co. and Natsume.   


**Medabots: Open Ring**   
  


**Chapter VII : Doubting Distraction**

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_"Don't lose focus... Unless you have a death wish."_   
**_- Second Maxim_**

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


=====   


The moon shone brilliantly over the sleeping city, unaware of the activity below. A few glimmering lights shone throughout the city blocks, like the seams of a patchwork quilt. Erika sighed and looked out her bedroom window, before turning back to her daybook. "It's a nice evening, isn't it, Brass?" 

Brass looked up from the documentary she was watching on Erika's personal TV. "What makes an evening nice, Miss Erika?" 

Erika smiled at Brass's question. "It's not much... We just say things, because... it's us. Humans are spontaneous, I guess... I heard my teacher often say that the dumbest humans are the most predictable." 

"Oh... I see," remarked Brass, as she hopped off the armchair she was sitting on and silently turned off the television. She turned and looked at Erika, who was writing in a journal of some sorts. "What are you writing in that daybook, Miss Erika?" 

"Not much," answered the young girl. "There isn't much to write about... Other than the latest stories I'll never release, things I don't want to talk about in public, and... personal stuff." 

"Personal stuff?" asked Brass. 

"Well, you know... Like Ikki." 

"Mister Ikki?" 

"Uh, yeah... I don't know if he likes me, for instance. I don't know if he still likes Karin... The way he acts sometimes... It's enough to drive a girl crazy, if you know what I mean..." 

"So, you like Ikki... a lot," observed Brass. "Miss Erika, are medabots capable of having emotions... feelings? Like love?" 

Erika shrugged as she felt her face heat up. "I don't know. I remember our last conversation like this... I don't know. Why do you ask?" 

"It's just that... I _think_ I like Metabee... Every time I'm with him, it's... I feel safe, secure... That he'll keep me from harm's way... Just like at Medabot Corp. when we were fighting against that medabot Belzelga..." 

Erika pondered. "It does sound like you really like him," she remarked. "I sometimes wish I had your simple conviction..." She shook her head. "It's just that, whenever I think of Ikki, I feel like I'm on some sort of roller-coaster... Sometimes, it's so complicated," she finished. 

Brass looked up at Erika. "Miss Erika, you didn't answer my question... Are medabots capable of having feelings?" 

Erika pondered. "I don't know... A few years ago, I might have said no, but now... With the way that I see you and Metabee act, I think that they might be able to..." 

"I see... So, are they capable of having feelings like... love?" 

"Love?" Erika suddenly saw where this was pointing to. "Oh, I see... You're referring back to that conversation we had a few days ago... I don't know. When we were talking a few days ago, I thought that it was just a joke or fluke... Now I see that you're being serious about this. I could say that medabots just might be capable... of love." She turned and closed her daybook, staring at the floorboards. "We're so screwed up, aren't we, Brass? We both like a guy that doesn't have the faintest idea of what we think or feel." 

Brass nodded. "Not the faintest idea..." 

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. Erika looked up. "Yeah? Who is it?" 

"Erika, it's your mother. There's a visitor for you." 

"For me?" 

"Yes... It's Ikki Tenryou." 

Erika suddenly did a double-take as her mother's words finally registered inside her brain. "I-Ikki?!" she stammered. She fought for a response, then finally managed to scramble for an answer. "A-all right... He can come in." 

The door opened, as Ikki and Metabee promptly stepped through the door, a little self-consciously. Ikki looked up. "Uh, hey Erika. I just came to ask about the progress on the information." 

"Oh, not much," Erika managed to reply, as she stared at the floor. 

Ikki looked at her closer. "Erika, you okay? Nothing wrong?" 

"N-nothing!" she stammered, as she forced a smile to her face. "Everything's perfectly fine!" 

Ikki shrugged, and then sat down on a chair. "Kasumi managed to get a lock on Siden's last known whereabouts. The Shizuken Docks. South-East sector." 

"Oh? What did they find there?" asked Erika. 

"Not much. Just a few shreds of his clothing... And his medawatch." 

"Anything else?" 

"Well, they used a cross-check whatchamacallit on his watch," answered Metabee. "They found out that right before he disappeared, he was trying to contact his medabot Ashton... Whatever he was doing, he was probably already in trouble by the time he called." 

"I see... So what's our next move?" questioned Brass. 

"Right now, we can't do much else, other than file the necessary information to Select Corp., and look for more information. Besides, we've got other problems," replied Ikki. 

"Like what?" 

"The theft at the Medabot Expo. None of us expected the RubberRobos to be still active after what happened at the last World Robattle Cup, but look what happened... Oh, another thing..." 

"Yeah?" replied Erika. 

"Kaito Shingawa called. He said that he found one of the RubberRobos involved in the theft... And that it was a girl." 

"What exactly happened?" 

"It appears that this girl was bullying some kid and he stepped in to stop her. In the process, she challenged him to a robattle and revealed to him her medabot... It was the same medabot stolen from the Expo." 

"And afterwards?" 

"Kaito and Helixbeetle managed to win, but she escaped," said Ikki. 

"So then it seems that the RubberRobos are still active," remarked Brass. "But do you think that Luminoustag would be working with the RubberRobos?" 

"I don't think so... Luminoustag is too efficient to be working with them," replied Ikki. "They always make a large bang when they launch an operation... Luminoustag attacked the Medabot Corp. with a bit of stealth... He didn't go in there with guns a-blazing..." 

"Uh, Ikki, Luminoustag doesn't have any guns..." said Metabee. 

"IT'S A FIGURE OF SPEECH!!" Ikki yelled. He sighed and turned to Erika. "Kasumi's going to check out the docks tomorrow... You want to come?" 

Erika shrugged. "Sure, why not?" 

Ikki nodded. "Okay, it's agreed... I'll meet you at the northwest tram terminal tomorrow morning at 9:00. Don't forget!" 

Erika nodded in return. "Sure..." 

Ikki got up from his chair and began to leave the room when Erika stammered something. 

"Hey, uhm, Ikki...?" 

"Yeah?" he asked, turning around. He noticed that Erika was now completely red in the face. He bent forward a bit. "Hey, Erika, you okay? Are you sure you're not sick? You've been really quiet this evening..." 

Erika abruptly shook her head. "Uh, no, no, it's... it's nothing... Bye." 

"Uhm, okay, bye, Erika..." He turned to Metabee. "'Kay, let's go..." Metabee was about to hop up from his spot on the floor when Ikki noticed something. "Hey, you two make a cute couple!" 

Metabee had a bewildered look in his lime-green optics. "Wha-!?" He looked around and promptly noticed that he was sitting right next to Brass... Very closely. "Gwaah--!!!" Stumbling over in his attempt to get up from his seat, he tripped over some books on the floor and fell head-first into a nearby wastebasket. He began to kick as he tried to pry himself out of the wickerwork container. "Hey, Ikki, lemme out!!" 

Brass was completely red in the face as she got up and began to help Metabee out of his uncomfortable position in the wastebasket, finally popping him out with a well-aimed kick to the bottom of the container. "Are you all right, Metabee?" she asked as he got up from the floor. 

"Uh, yeah, yeah, no problem," he muttered as he dusted the trash off his torso. "By the way, thanks." He then got up and stood next to Ikki, as he gave a small wave. 

"Hey, see you," mumbled Ikki. 

"'Bye, guys... or, gals, I guess..." added Metabee. 

"See you tomorrow, Ikki..." muttered Erika as she turned even redder. 

"Bye, Metabee..." Brass said somewhat shyly. 

The door closed as the two walked out, and Erika sighed again and slumped over on her armchair. "How stupid of me... I chickened out..." 

"Chickened out?" asked Brass with a curious stare. 

"It means that I was afraid," replied Erika glumly. "I was afraid to tell him how I felt..." 

"I see," said Brass. "I guess I was as well..." She suddenly found the floorboards to be of great interest. 

Outside, the cicadas continued to buzz and serenade the sleeping town, unaware of two young and frustrated females sitting inside the house.   


=====   


"Man, what a bummer..." Ikki sighed as he and Metabee walked back towards their house in the dim moonlight. 

"What's got into you?" asked Metabee. "You looked like a strapped clam all day." 

"I... had some things on my mind," replied Ikki with an embarrassed grumble. 

"Things? Things like... girls?" teased Metabee. 

"You shut your mouth! That's none of your business!!" yelled Ikki as he shook his fist at his medabot. "Besides, I'm not really thinking about girls right now... We have the World Robattle Cup to think about..." he muttered. 

"Still, do you... Do you still like Karin?" asked Metabee with a mischievous look in his optics. 

Ikki glumly shook his head. "No... not anymore... I learned that a long time ago." 

"How?" 

"I... just looked at her one day and realized... she's Koji's girl. She's not for me, and besides, it isn't fair to go around competing with Koji about something so trivial, and Karin doesn't deserve to be used like some object being fought over in a tug-of-war game... No, she isn't part of my thinking anymore... She's a friend, but that's it." 

"So, then what girl is on your mind?" 

Ikki turned bright red in the face as he started to stammer. "SO!? W-what's that to you? So what if I l-like Erika..." 

Metabee's eyes turned as round and as large as dinner-plates. "WHAAA!!? You like her?" He started to first chuckle, then chortle, and finally laugh out loud in uproarious guffaws that made Ikki turn even redder in the face. 

"Will you cut that out!? It's not that funny!!" yelled Ikki. 

"No, no it's nothing like that," Metabee managed to say in-between his laughs, "but how long has it taken you to finally admit it?" 

"Oh, shut up," grumbled Ikki. "Besides, don't you have a thing for Brass? Or do you still like Oceana?" he said with a malicious grin. 

Metabee started to copy Ikki's previous behavior. "N-no! Nothing like that! I... I... I, well, so what... I... No, I completely forgot about Oceana... I... I think I prefer Brass." He suddenly realized what he'd said when Ikki's grin became even wider. "No!! No, it's nothing like that, you see I-" 

"Sure, sure," Ikki muttered, as he continued to grin at his partner. "C'mon, Metabee, let's go home..." 

Metabee sighed. "Okay, okay... Sheesh... How did we get into this now? And speaking of which, is that why you were so quiet around Erika this evening?" 

"I'm always quiet around Erika," mumbled Ikki, "but, yeah, it had something to do with it..." 

The two slumped their shoulders as they turned towards home. 

After a moment's silence, they simultaneously said one single line. 

"We're so screwed up."   


=====   


"Hey, Helixbeetle, hand me that wrench, will you?" 

"Sure." The KBT-type reached into the plastic toolbox and pulled out a 9-gauge line powered wrench and handed it to Kaito. 

Kaito reached up into the underside of the console and pulled at some wire. "Hmm... Ah! There we go," he muttered with some satisfaction as he clicked some wires together. He then climbed out from underneath the display and then stretched his limbs for a moment as he set his toolbox on a table. 

Sonicstag, who was watching from a distance, walked up to the console that Kaito had been working on with some curiosity. "So, just what are you doing, Kaito?" 

"Good thing you asked. I'm working on a telemetry system that will allow me to access any remote server using NAVI's networking CPU, and extract any information without having to get through obstacles such as firewalls, password protection, or remote detection systems." 

"Isn't that illegal?" muttered Sonicstag with some derision. 

Kaito's face darkened. "True, but I'm intending to use this system for a very specific purpose... To find out who killed my parents, and for what reason, and then I'll get even with them." His face then lifted somewhat. "Once the final systems including GPS tracking and real-time video/audio transceivers are finished, I'll be able to use this console as a primary center for gathering and monitoring data." 

"Kaito," mumbled Helixbeetle, "I told you before, this isn't the way. The past is dead... If you let this sort of revenge get into your heart, there's no way you're going to be able to determine your own destiny." 

"Helixbeetle's right, you know," added Sonicstag. "If you let that desire poison your heart, that will be the only thing that will control your mind and influence your actions. It will be the only thing that will determine your destiny... And you will have no control over it." 

Kaito shrugged. "I'll be the judge of that. NAVI, are you ready for prototype testing?" 

The display on the console flickered, and then lit up, revealing a voice-wave synthesizer. NAVI's digital voice spoke up, beeping as it began its reply. "All base systems ready for test. Shall I begin?" 

Kaito nodded. "Go for it." 

The screen opened up several windows, revealing lines of data that rapidly scrolled down the monitor as NAVI began testing for connectivity and compatibility issues. After a few moments, the windows closed, and NAVI's voice began speaking over the attached speakers. 

"All base systems accounted for. All systems in place, no errors detected. Firewall and virus protections are online." 

"Excellent. Shut down for now, NAVI. Let's call it a day." Kaito yawned as he turned the console off and set down his shades on the workbench. He turned to the two medabots standing nearby. "Well, I'm ready for bed... What about you?" 

"I could do with a bit of shut-eye," replied Helixbeetle. 

"Rest would be welcome," added Sonicstag. 

The three walked into what Kaito had set up to be a makeshift bedroom, rigged with a small cot and two foam-rubber platforms that were set-up with two small power generators. Kaito sat down sleepily on his cot and stretched. "It's going to be a long day tomorrow. I think I'll go outside and get some more supplies... We're running a bit low on food and soldering." 

Helixbeetle suddenly spoke up from the mat he was sitting on. "Say, Kaito?" 

"Yeah?" answered his medafighter. 

"What do you think of that RubberRobo we ran into the other day... You know, Sharkscout?" 

Kaito chuckled. "Don't know. She seems to be hiding something behind a 'tough-girl' facade... Almost as if something awful happened to her, and she's hiding it from everybody she meets... A lot like some bullies I used to know back at the middle school I went to. Other than that... I think she's okay, though. Even attractive, I think..." 

Helixbeetle gave an electronic laugh. "Boys. Just like I expected. Always thinking with their hormones." 

"Hey, what about you?" retorted Kaito. "Didn't you have a 'thing' for Skyelder the first time you saw her at the expo? Huh?" 

"Uh, well, yeah... Until we started robattling... Damn, that blade of hers is as cold as an iceberg," remarked Helixbeetle. 

Sonicstag merely stared at the two and sighed as he lay back on his mat. "Kids..."   


=====   


Sharkscout cursed as she flinched away from the shower of sparks issuing out of the arc welder she was holding. Removing her facemask, she sat down heavily on the bench and looked at her handiwork. Skyelder's faceplate still needed a new paint job, but other than that, everything including the optics had been fully repaired from the effects of the KBT-type's devastating attack. The RubberRobo threw her arc welder into the toolbox nearby. 

There was a brief clicking noise, and Skyelder's eyes lit up. "B-boss?" A few gyros squeaked in protest as the Valkyrie-type medabot sat up on the worktable. 

"Yeah, you're back up to speed, Skyelder. Just don't move too fast... The welds aren't fully hardened yet." Sharkscout groaned as she wiggled out of her rubber outfit, revealing a tight-fitting tank top and khaki cutoffs, as well as a head full of long, dark black hair that fell in a shimmering curtain. Setting down her shades, she then turned to the VAL-type still sitting on the workbench as she sighed. "Tell me, Skyelder, how did I lose? I'm one of the few members of the RubberRobo gang that had an undefeated fight record up until now." 

Skyelder slowly got off the worktable and stood next to her medafighter. "Maybe because we underestimated their strategy? Maybe because we put too much faith in our abilities...?" 

Sharkscout sighed again and focused her hazel-colored eyes on her medabot. "I don't know, Skyelder... I don't know. I stole your current body in order to make you even better in combat, but... I lost the very first robattle using this set. Maybe I've been putting too much attention on medaparts alone." 

Skyelder patted her medafighter's shoulder. "Don't worry about it, boss..." 

"I'm trying, I'm trying... Another thing," Sharkscout added, as she turned to her medabot. "Why did that guy let me go without taking you? I even let him have your medal." 

"Perhaps... perhaps he felt sorry for you?" 

"But I don't need anyone's sympathy!" Sharkscout's voice suddenly rose, and then faltered. "If I take someone's sympathy, that'll show that I'm... weak." 

"Boss, may I ask a question?" Skyelder spoke tentatively. 

Sharkscout shrugged. "Go ahead." 

"Since when did you feel that accepting sympathy made you weak?" Skyelder's teal-colored eyes glowed softly. 

"Ever since I joined the RubberRobos," replied Sharkscout. "My dad had always told my mother he'd wanted a son instead of a daughter... My mother later died due to tuberculosis. I was never wanted at home, and when I first showed interest in being a medafighter, my dad discouraged me from doing so. He told me he never wanted me to be one." 

"And?" 

"One day, I found a medal... it had been dropped into the flood-control channel. I decided from then on to simply do whatever I wanted, despite what my dad felt. I trained secretly, and I found a set of second-hand medaparts to use. Well, guess what happened next." 

"What happened?" 

"I won the regional championships... Can you believe that? But my happiness was short-lived... when I stepped out of the stadium, I found my dad standing at the front gate, red in the face, and as mad as I'd ever seen him. It was then that he told me... 'If only I was a boy'. It was then that I realized how little he cared about me because I was... a girl. When we got home, he promptly destroyed my medabot's Tin-Pet and threw the medal into the kitchen's trash compactor... I never talked to him again after that." 

"That sounds awful... After that?" 

"I ran from home soon afterwards... When I joined the RubberRobos, that was when I first met you, of course... A small, abandoned Mermaid-type that was only kept around for repair jobs." 

Skyelder silently nodded, her eyes full of memories. 

Sharkscout stopped, and stretched her limbs. "I don't know, Skyelder... I don't want to do this forever, you know. I have my own dreams; dreams of being a great medafighter, and finding someone that cares about me, instead of only themselves... Being a RubberRobo is tough, and even being an elite member isn't fun. The other elites are probably going to ridicule me about my loss for days on end, and especially just after my best heist." 

She lay back on her small, threadbare mattress as she sharply exhaled. "But no matter what, I'm still going to beat that Kaito Shingawa one of these days... One of these days, Skyelder. That'll prove to everyone that I'm NOT weak. Still..." 

"Yes?" 

"He... did kinda seem cute." 

There was a knock at the door. Sharkscout sat up. "Come in." 

A voice sounded off from the other side. "No time to chat. We've got another mission, Sharkscout. Briefing room, pronto." 

Sharkscout groaned as she wriggled back into her suit and gestured to Skyelder. "C'mon. We've got another job to do."   


=====   


Siden had always been sheltered from pain... Physical pain, to be more precise. He had always received his fair share of bruised egos and hurt feelings, but he'd never felt actual, brutal gut-wrenching pain until now. As he opened his eyes, he got up from where he was lying and groaned. 

"Man... I feel like I fell off the roof of the school." His eyes slowly began to adjust to the dim lighting around him, as he noticed that the floor he was lying on was rather slimy and damp, almost as if it hadn't been cleaned for several years. 

Slowly getting to his feet, Siden instinctively touched his left wrist, and found that his medawatch was missing. "Damn them... Must have absconded with it when I got knocked out." He cursed for a bit, then looked around. He was being held in an old, barred cell of some sorts, without even a cot or bunk. The only feature of interest was a small drain in one corner of the cell, darkly stained with rust. 

There was an abrupt creaking noise, and Siden's eyes darted from left to right as he struggled to peer into the shadowy gloom that stretched beyond his cell. As his eyes finally got used to the dim light, he vaguely noticed the form of MACHINA standing before him with his lackeys. "Ah, good evening, young Siden. I trust you've rested well?" This last statement was followed by a dry, dull chuckle. 

Siden abruptly stormed up to the bars of his cell and shook them, as he shot an angry glare at the hooded figure. "All right, you misguided fool, where am I?" 

MACHINA's chuckle slowly grew into a full-blown cynical laugh as he responded. "No worry, young Siden. You are not in harm's way... Yet. You are going to be the guest of honor at this little event..." 

There was a cacaphony of clicks and shifting metal as row after row of bright fluorescent lights suddenly blinked on, temporarily blinding Siden. When he managed to squint through his half-closed eyelids, Siden suddenly did a double-take. "What in the hell...?!" 

Standing in front of the young teenager's cell was a massive, black medabot, as large as a heavy tank, and adorned with cryptic runes and silvery armor plating. Siden stared at the monstrosity, which, even though inactive, looked like nothing more than a demon that had been taken right out of the eighth circle of Hell and then mechanized. 

MACHINA looked up at the medabot with evident pride in his glance as he spoke. "I see that Ragnarok has made an impression on you. I'm pleased. Soon, it will be more than just his appearance that will make all of humanity tremble and sweat with fear." He turned around and looked at Siden. "If you only had the brain to know how to forge the right alliances... You would have had a privileged part in the creation of this medabot. Now, I fear that you have been consigned to damnation like all the others." 

Siden pounded the bars of his cell. "What the hell are you intending to do?!" 

"My intent?" MACHINA's voice took on a chilling, foreboding tone. "Not much. Just a dream... A dream of oblivion." 

His voice continued to grow colder, and more ominous as Siden imperiously questioned him. "Oblivion?! Oblivion of what!?"   


=====   


Up above in the chamber's rafters, unnoticed by either MACHINA, his lackeys, or Siden, Luminoustag steadily watched MACHINA gloat over his creation. His two crimson eyes burned with an enigmatic fire as he regarded his current employer. After a moment's silence, the blue KWG-type spoke softly to himself, a tone of deep regret and sadness in its voice as it answered Siden's question without answering it to Siden himself. 

"Oblivion... of life as we know it."   
  
  


**To Be Continued...**


	8. Chapter 8: Juxtaposition

**STANDARD DISCLAIMER: ** I do not own Medabots, Medarot, nor anything related to the trademark. All rights, permissions, official characters, and concepts are properties of Imagineer Co. and Natsume.   


**Medabots: Open Ring**   
  


**Chapter VIII : Juxtaposition**

=====   
  
  


_"There is always a question of when a catastrophe will arrive. The fact is, it never comes at the time you expect it to occur."_   
**_- Nicator_**

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


=====   


"Well, nothing here of interest," Metabee muttered to himself. The Shizuken docks appeared to be utterly devoid of anything that could be connected to Siden's disappearance, and frankly, Metabee was getting frustrated with the lack of progress. 

Metabee kicked over an empty crate and turned to Ikki. "Well, nothing here. Ikki, you found anything?" 

Ikki shook his head. "Nope. It's like trying to find the proverbial needle in a haystack." 

Erika and Brass were busily trying to peek into several warehouse windows for clues, but dirty glass prevented them from getting anything of use. Brass finally stepped down from one of the piles of crate she was standing on and sighed. "I don't think we'll get anything this way. Did Mister Kasumi and the others get anything else?" 

Metabee was about to answer when a shout of greeting and running footsteps met his audio receptors. Turning around, he saw a pair of very familiar faces running towards the group at high speed. 

Ikki grinned and waved. "Hey, Rintaro, Kantaroth! What's up?" 

The vertically-challenged, hyperactive medafighter and his angular KBT-type medabot screeched to a halt and stood in front of the group. "We heard about what happened at the Expo." He suddenly pulled a packet of papers out of his pocket. "By the way, I've got some stuff for you guys. Kantaroth and I were on the 'net when we found these stats on a website. It's listing several recent events that happened around town." 

"What the-?" exclaimed Metabee as he examined the packet. "It's nothing but listings of medapart and medal theft in and around several local hopmarts and department stores... Is this more RubberRobo activity?" 

"Seems like it," answered Rintaro. "I was at the local 24-hour hopmart just yesterday. Henry was blowing a fit! Over half the shop's inventory of high-end medapart weaponry has been pilfered. He said something about losing his job while at the same time streaming a blur of profanity that I couldn't pick up." 

"This is getting weirder all the time," Erika remarked. "First a rogue medabot shows up, then Kasumi's friend Siden disappears, and now a wave of theft. And I'm getting no answers! Just more questions!" Erika's temper was beginning to rise. "I'm getting si-" 

Erika's last sentence was suddenly interrupted by the sound of Select Corp. sirens wailing into the morning air. Ikki turned to the others. "Looks like something's going on. Let's check it out!" 

The group began to run in the direction of the blaring klaxons.   


=====   


Kaito was underneath his console, finishing up the last few adjustments to the final system check-out when NAVI's electronic voice suddenly came on over the intercom, filled with some trepidation. 

"Administrator, my remote sensors indicate a group of intruders at one of the old HEX Corp. storage facilities. Some of the security locks have been breached. Several prototype medaparts and Tin-Pets are being stored there." 

Kaito quickly slid out from underneath the console and turned to the audio pick-up as he turned on the display. "Initiate lockdown sequence. List location and give me a GPS scan. I want to know where they're getting in." 

"Acknowledged." 

Sonicstag and Helixbeetle walked into the room. "Hey, Kaito, what's going on?" questioned Kaito's KBT-type. 

"There's a break-in at one of the old HEX Corp. storage buildings. Looks like someone's trying to steal HEX Corp. property." 

NAVI's voice came back over the intercom. "Security lockdown now active. GPS scan and location coordinates confirmed. Now transmitting..." Lines of numerals began to flash on the data window. Kaito quickly began jotting the numbers down. "Good work, NAVI. Try and get me a remote real-time security video feedback." 

"Confirmed, Administrator. Real-time video uplink now in progress..." 

Helixbeetle turned to his medafighter. "So, what are we going to do?" 

"We're going to find out who's behind this. And when we do, we're going to make sure that they don't touch whatever's in that storage area." Kaito began pulling on his trenchcoat and shoes when NAVI's voice came on again over the speakers. 

"Real-time video uplink completed. Now displaying." 

Kaito turned to the monitor and stared as video media began playing through the screen. Kaito abruptly pushed a key on his terminal. "NAVI, zoom in on vector 35-1. I want to see what's on that screen a little more clearly." 

"Acknowledged." 

Kaito suddenly started back in surprise as he recognized the figures. "They're RubberRobos! And that's... Sharkscout?! She's probably leading them. Now this is getting serious... Sonicstag, you stay here and watch NAVI. Helixbeetle and I are going to see some 'friends' of ours at the HEX Corp. storage area." 

The two dashed out of the room as Sonicstag turned to the console and emitted an electronic sigh. "Well, I've been consigned to babysitting again." 

NAVI's voice came over the speaker, still maintaining its dead-pan feminine tone. "I am _not_ a juvenile."   


=====   


"Skyelder! Crystal Halberd!!" Sharkscout ordered. 

The automated SEN-type medabot fell to the floor in six separate pieces as the VAL-type finished her attack lunge. 

The entire complex had been thoroughly roused from the RubberRobos' break-in, and now the built-in security systems were on full alert, deploying grav-nets, stun guns, and large groups of automated medabots. Plus, Select Corp.'s agents had now arrived on the scene. 

All in all, not the smoothest of operations. 

Several of the gang had already been taken down by the building's security systems and Select Corp. agents, and some of Sharkscout's detachment were included among them. Sharkscout turned to her timid-looking vanguard as Skyelder turned away from the SEN-type's smoking wreckage. "Fishfin, I want you and Scorpius to move to center vector. This room's getting flooded with too many security units." 

Fishfin gave a hesitant nod and gestured to his Scorpion-type medabot to follow him as he went out of the room. Sharkscout motioned to Skyelder to follow as she flipped open her communicator. "HQ, this is Sharkscout. Recommend we abort operation." 

RubberRobo veteran Gillgirl's face appeared on the communicator screen. "Negative, Sharkscout. Acquisition of the target pair is of utmost importance." 

Sharkscout's voice took on a hard edge. "Listen, Gillgirl, we're already getting nailed by the security system here, and now Select Corp. has appeared on the complex grounds. We can't take them all!" 

"Don't argue with me, Sharkscout! You've defied my orders one too many times already! Now acquire our targets, or I will personally replace you with a more obedient officer! Do you understand me!?" 

"Yes, _ma'am_," Sharkscout fiercely muttered as she switched the communicator off. Turning to Skyelder, she gave a cynical, reckless grin. "Well, Skyelder, shall we go recklessly mock the long arm of the law?" 

Skyelder merely looked up at her medafighter before speaking. "Where my medafighter goes, I go." 

Sharkscout smiled in pride at her medabot as the two began moving down the hallway towards their goal.   


=====   


"NAVI, stand down to level 3 security systems. Detain all Select Corp. units from entering the building until further notice." 

"Acknowledged. All sentries have engaged to SECPRO-3. Cordons regrouping." 

Kaito shut off his communicator as he and Helixbeetle dashed down the main hallway. They had barely managed to get inside the facility without being noticed by any of the Select Corp. agents stationed outside the building, and they still had yet to find any RubberRobos. 

Helixbeetle looked around the building as they continued to run. "That's funny... Aside from some of the security locks and a few blast doors, nothing's been touched. What's going on?" 

"They seem to be after something specific," murmured Kaito. "But what would they be after?" 

There was the sound of a massive explosion as part of a section of wall in front of them collapsed. Kaito and Helixbeetle quickly took cover behind a pile of nearby boxes and miscellaneous electronics as a contingent of RubberRobos and their respective medabots began pouring in, pursued by a group of Select Corp. agents as they desperately tried to hold their ground. Kaito cursed as he reinitiated his connection to NAVI. 

"Damnit, NAVI, what happened?" 

"There were several sections of the building that I could not get access to and therefore could not monitor. I'm... sorry for my failure, Administrator." 

Kaito sighed. "Never mind. What I need you to do right now is shut down the security net, since I don't want Select Corp. to know about your existence. Set all security to level 1. Helixbeetle and I are going to check this out by ourselves." 

"Understood. All sentries engaged to SECPRO-1. Returning all units to original staging positions." 

Several of the that were present in the hallway immediately began an orderly retreat to parts unknown in the building as the RubberRobos' and Select Corp. agents' medabots continued to crater the hallway due to their conflict. 

Kaito gave one final look at the hallway and turned to Helixbeetle. "Let's take another route."   


=====   


Sharkscout silently snuck into an adjoining hallway as she and Skyelder sidestepped one of the Select Corp. patrols that had entered the building. She turned to her VAL-type medabot. 

"Well, how close are we to the target location?" 

"Approximately 50 meters or so. We should be able to reach it without being detected." 

Sharkscout nodded. "Good. Point out the way." 

After evading several other patrols that were cordoning off sections of the building, Skyelder indicated a small, reinforced security door that had a 'RESTRICTED' sign prominently labeled onto its front. Sharkscout merely nodded to Skyelder, who tore the door off its frame with one well-aimed swing of her halberd. 

A long, narrow hallway stretched forwards into the bowels of the complex. Sharkscout quickly slipped inside the corridor without hesitation, and Skyelder followed. 

The hallway twisted and turned, and abruptly opened out into a small dusty room that was lined with row after row of medals, all mounted under glass on plastic shelves. Sharkscout briefly looked around before stopping before a particular shelf and smashing one of the cases open. Two medals sat inside the case, their cores softly glowing an eerie green. 

The RubberRobo began to reach into the case... And then suddenly everything in Sharkscout's vision began to swirl. 

_What the hell!?_

There was a sudden, sharp pain, in Sharkscout's right temple, and everything went black.   


=====   


_Where am I?_

Darkness swirled throughout Sharkscout's vision... Images occasionally popping into view, as if they were firecrackers. 

A voice. No... two voices. 

_Who are you?_

The RubberRobo's mind began to slowly react to this new stimulus. _What?_

_Who are you?_

Another image. Another time. Sharkscout squinted, and watched the vision swirl and pulse. A small, young girl... With long, black hair. Her hair. 

A boy. Short black hair. Something... familiar. 

Sharkscout squinted some more, as if trying to recall something that suddenly tickled in the deepest recesses of her brain... _Remember? Remember me? Do you remember me? I remember you..._

There was a brilliant flash, and darkness once again overcame Sharkscout's mind. 

_Makoru..._   


=====   


"Makoru!! MAKORU!!" 

Sharkscout opened her eyes, as she looked up to see Skyelder intently staring into her medafighter's face. Skyelder gently shook Sharkscout's arm as she continued to stare into her medafighter's face with concern. 

"Makoru, are you okay?" 

Sharkscout groaned, and got to her feet as she tried to work a sudden crick in her neck. "Skyelder, how many times have I told you not to call me by that name? That name means nothing to me anymore..." 

Skyelder backed away as she stared at the ground. "I'm sorry, boss..." 

Sharkscout curtly nodded and turned to the case that she'd been about to rifle when that vision occurred. 

She reached in, and... 

_Something... something familiar._

Sharkscout shook her head, and then abruptly let her arm dive into the case. Pulling out the two medals from the mounting rack, she turned to Skyelder as she sealed the medals inside a set of plastic cases. "Well, we've gotten what we came for. I just hope this is all worth it." She flipped open her communicator. "HQ, this is Sharkscout. Targets have been acquired. Requesting extraction team." 

"Acquisition acknowledged. Extraction team will rendezvous with you at coordinate-vector 34/22.1." 

"Understood. Over and out." Sharkscout began opening up a PA line to the other members of the RubberRobo team that were still active inside the building. "Team Robo-3, target pair has been acquired. Proceed to rooftop level and wait for extraction. Repeat: Proceed to rooftop level for extraction." Sharkscout flipped off the communicator as she turned to Skyelder. "All right, let's bust this popsicle stand." 

Skyelder nodded and followed Sharkscout out of the room, only to promptly bump into Fishfin and Scorpius around the next bend. Fishfin got up from where he had fallen from the sudden impact and gave a quick salute. "Orders received and acknowledged, team leader. I understand that the targets are in your possession?" 

Sharkscout nodded as she threw him one of the cases. "You're going to hold one of our prizes. Just in case I don't make it, one of us will have something to show for our efforts in this insane attempt." 

Fishfin nodded as he dashed ahead of Sharkscout down the corridor and around a corner, when a powerful explosion rocked the building. Turning the corner ahead, Sharkscout found herself facing a large pile of rubble blocking the corridor, separating her and Skyelder from Fishfin and Scorpius. 

Sharkscout flipped on her communicator. "Fishfin, continue to the extraction point. Skyelder and I will find an alternate route." 

Fishfin's voice rose in protest on the other end of the line. "Sharkscout-!" 

"Just do it! I'll be fine!" 

Fishfin hesitantly responded. "Well... All right. Just be careful, okay?" 

"Acknowledged. Now get going." Sharkscout turned to Skyelder and motioned to her. "Skyelder, track alternate route to extraction point, and quickly!" 

Skyelder nodded as she began to lead her medafighter on a detour route down another hallway.   


=====   


Fishfin vaulted over several broken Select Corp. medabots as he and Scorpius continued to run as fast as possible to the given extraction point. Turning to Scorpius, he panted for breath as he spoke. "Scorpius, how close are we to the rooftop? 

"Not much farther. Stairwell to rooftop level is just 10 meters away, around the next bend." 

"Good... I hate exercise." The pair quickly began to climb up the stairs as a group of Select Corp. agents appeared from another room and began to give chase. Barely managing to stay one step ahead of the Select Corp. contingent, Fishfin and his medabot managed to reach the rooftop, where a RubberRobo gunship sat, patiently loading the last of the remaining RubberRobos that were still at liberty. 

Gillgirl stood in the open bay door, sharply gesturing to Fishfin and Scorpius to hurry it up as she noticed the group of Select Corp. agents in hot pursuit. Fishfin and Scorpius finally jumped through the bay door, sitting down heavily on the gunship's metal deck. 

Turning to the gunship's pilot, Gillgirl gave a quick order. "Pilot, get us out of here!" 

"Wait! Sharkscout's still inside the building!" Fishfin yelled in protest. 

"It's too late! If we stay here much longer, Select Corp. will catch us!" Gillgirl slammed the bay door shut as several bullets from some of the Select Corp. medabots ricocheted off the sides of the rising gunship.   


=====   


Sharkscout and Skyelder stepped out onto the rooftop and stared in dismayed shock as she saw the RubberRobo gunship taking off, Gillgirl's defiant and Fishfin's regretful faces clearly showing in one of the gunship's windows. Several of the Select Corp. agents suddenly noticed the presence of the female RubberRobo as several more Select Corp. agents stepped onto the rooftop behind her. 

Sharkscout cursed as she noticed that the Select Corp. agents had completely surrounded her and her medabot. 

One of the Select Corp. agents stepped forward. "Well, well, well. It appears that we've found an elite RubberRobo. And in possession of stolen Medabot Corp. medaparts from the recent Expo, I might add. This just might turn out to be a certain Lt. Katoko's lucky day after all." 

"You're not taking me without a fight! Skyelder, get ready!" 

Lt. Katoko merely had a smug expression on his face as he suddenly turned to some indistinct shape standing on the top of a nearby building, which then suddenly disappeared. "I think not. Silverthorn, care to do the honors?" 

Sharkscout blinked in surprise as a beam of blinding light suddenly shot from out of nowhere, blasting point-blank into Skyelder's torso. 

Skyelder fell to the concrete pavement with a small gasp of pain as the VAL-type collapsed to the ground. 

Sharkscout began to run to her side as a stun-gun blast from one of the Select Corp. medabots hit her in the side, sending her tumbling to the pavement. The female RubberRobo struggled to get back on her feet, and then mentally cursed herself as she found that she couldn't even lift an arm. She turned to her medabot as she weakly muttered a few words. "Skyelder... Are you all right...?" 

Her medabot gave a small electronic rasp as she managed to reply back. "EMP blast. Can't... move." 

Sharkscout abruptly looked up in horror as she noticed a KWG medabot in silver armor and sporting a pair of three-pronged blades on both of its wrists descend onto the rooftop from a nearby building with the silent grace of a trained assassin. One of its glowing yellow eyes were covered over by its lopsided faceplate, leaving an eerie expression on a face that already carried a sinister aura about it. The Select Corp. lieutenant smiled strangely as he spoke. "I would like to introduce my KWG-type medabot Silverthorn. He's quite good at incapacitating rogues... wouldn't you agree, Sharkscout?" 

Sharkscout spat one final line in disgust as she fell unconscious. "Screw you, fuzz." 

Katoko merely smiled in that peculiar way of his. "Thank you for the compliment, Robo, but I'm afraid that this is the end of the alley for you, my unscrupulous friend." His voice took on a hard edge. "Silverthorn, apprehend them." 

Just as the KWG-type medabot stepped forward to apprehend the pair, a small metal canister suddenly bounced onto the concrete and landed at the lieutenant's feet. "What the-!?" 

There was a small explosion, and then a blinding flash of light that sent everyone staggering back as the flashbang grenade overloaded the optical visors of both the Select Corp. agents and their medabots. 

Katoko rubbed his eyes as he finally got his eyes to recover from the grenade's effects... And noticed that his quarry had given him the slip. He slammed the ground with an armored fist as he cursed. "Damnit!! I'll find you no matter where you are, RubberRobo scum! You can count on that!!" He turned to the others and barked a few quick orders. "Finish securing the other RubberRobos, and sweep this facility from rooftop to basement! I want that girl found!" The other agents quickly saluted the lieutenant as Katoko stormed down the stairs, Silverthorn following close behind.   


=====   


Sharkscout rapidly blinked as she regained consciousness. As her mind slowly lifted from the fog that the tranquilizer had inflicted, she found herself looking into a pair of dark-brown eyes, framed by a pair of sunglasses. At first, the RubberRobo thought that she'd been somehow rescued and brought back to RubberRobo HQ, but then that thought left her mind as she suddenly recognized the face that those eyes belonged to. 

Kaito Shingawa sat on a chair nearby, regarding the female RubberRobo with some detached curiosity. 

Sharkscout abruptly struggled out of the cot she was lying on as she tried to put a threatening tone in her voice. "If you've brought me here to play funny with me, you're going to seriously re-" 

"I have no intention of doing so... And besides, is that any way to speak to your saviors?" Kaito cynically remarked. 

The female RubberRobo shook her head in disbelief as the fact registered in her mind. "I... didn't know. Sorry." 

Kaito nodded in acknowledgment. "That's an improvement. By the way, Skyelder's going to be all right. She took a direct EMP hit, but there's been no permanent damage to her systems, so she'll recover soon enough. Helixbeetle's keeping an eye on her right now." 

Sharkscout slowly nodded her head. "Sure thing." She slid off the cot and got to her feet as she looked around the room she was in. "So, just where am I?" 

"You're at the former HEX Corp. office HQ complex," replied Kaito. "Which is currently my home and base of operations." 

A white KWG-type medabot walked into the room. "Kaito, Miss Skyelder's regained consciousness, so she's all right. I assume that our... guest is also back to normal?" 

Kaito nodded. "Yes. Good work, Sonicstag. You're free for the moment, so just stay out of trouble." 

"Understood." Sonicstag walked back out without even a sign of acknowledgement of Sharkscout's presence. 

"Well... I assume that he's not one to socialize?" asked Sharkscout. 

"You could say that. It's just that Sonicstag is a bit leery of strangers, so he requires some time before he trusts people he doesn't know. It's understandable, considering the fact that he's been a prisoner for most of his operating time." 

"I see." Sharkscout's voice took on a self-conscious tone as she spoke again, this time somewhat hesitantly. "Thanks... I guess. For rescuing me and Skyelder." 

Kaito shrugged. "No problem, Sharkscout." 

The female RubberRobo's face turned red in slight embarrassment. "That's... You don't need to call me by that. The name's Makoru." 

"Sure... Makoru." Kaito's face also turned somewhat red in embarrassment as he cleared his throat and turned his face to the wall, unwilling to let his embarrassment show to the girl standing in front of him. 

"By the way," said Makoru, "just why did you rescue me? I'm a RubberRobo, a thief... a criminal." 

"For one thing," answered Kaito, "I don't have the highest regard for Select Corp. They're corrupt, and they tend to take the worst approach when handling criminals. Besides, I couldn't stand that snot-nosed lieutenant's attitude." 

Makoru grinned. "That's understandable..." 

Kaito gulped a bit, then pressed on. "Also, because..." 

"Yeah?" said Makoru expectantly. 

"...You're cute." 

Makoru stared in utter shock as Kaito's face turned bright red from his last statement. After a moment's silence, Makoru suddenly burst out laughing, as Kaito also started to laugh a moment later. 

Kaito finally quieted down and scratched the back of his head in an embarrassed manner. "Sorry... I shouldn't have been so forward." 

Makoru smiled as she flipped her head back, letting her long, black hair ripple in a dark wave. "No... There's no need to be sorry. Besides, you're the first guy that's complimented me like that." 

"Really? That's sad." Kaito chuckled a bit as he got off his chair. "I'm going to see how Helixbeetle's doing. You could come along if you'd like." 

Makoru followed without hesitation as Kaito stepped into an adjacent room, where Helixbeetle was busy looking over several readouts on a monitor. Skyelder was sitting on a nearby worktable quietly as Helixbeetle looked up from his work. "Oh, hey Kaito. I see that Sharkscout's awake." 

"Yeah... But I think she'd like it better if you just called her Makoru." 

"Oh... Is that her name? Makoru... Sounds familiar," muttered Helixbeetle. He scratched his domed head. "Now where did I hear that name before?" He shrugged and turned back to the readouts. 

Makoru walked up to Skyelder, who was still sitting silently on the worktable. "Hey, Skyelder, you okay?" 

Skyelder nodded. "I'm all right... Just a bit dizzy from that EMP blast that KWG-type threw at me." 

Kaito turned somewhat hesitantly to Makoru. "So, um... when do you want to leave? You're free to go anytime you wish." 

Makoru had a puzzled expression on her face. "Leave?" 

"Yeah, you know... Back to your RubberRobo friends." 

Makoru's face darkened as she pondered this statement, and a few moments later after pacing the floor for a bit shook her head. "I've decided... not to go back." 

"Why not?" Kaito asked in slight bewilderment. 

Makoru turned her back to Kaito as she spoke, trying her best to hide the tears of anger and hurt that were threatening to spill. "Because I don't want to go back to some stupid group that turns its back on you the first moment you're in trouble, okay? Look what happened. I risked my neck as well as Skyelder's in order to get some sort of stupid junk that my superiors wanted. And still they abandoned me. To top it all off, my archrival is the person that comes to my rescue..." she finally muttered as her voice slowly drifted away. Wiping her face on her arm, she turned back to Kaito. 

Kaito stood silently for a moment before speaking. "I... understand. Speaking of which, just what was it that you stole from that HEX Corp. facility?" 

Makoru shrugged as she thought for a moment. "Not much. Just a pair of medals that some of my supervisors wanted... What they wanted with them, I'll never know. I have one of them here," she remarked as she reached into her pocket and pulled out the plastic case that she'd been holding. 

"Where's the other one?" 

"I gave it to one of my teammates during the break-in before I was left behind," she said with a resigned shrug. 

Kaito was about to take the proffered container when a light on one of the displays began to blink on and off, as Helixbeetle interpreted the signal. "Hey, Kaito, there's a phone call for you. It's from Mr. Tenryou." 

Kaito rushed over and clicked on the two-way speakerphone. "Oh hey, Ikki, is that you?" 

"Yeah, it's me," Ikki's voice answered over the other end. "I've got some news here. There's been a break-in at a HEX Corp. storage facility." 

"I was there," replied Kaito. 

"You were? How come Erika and I never saw you?" asked Ikki with a but of curiosity. 

"Got in through the patio door," answered Kaito. "Anything else?" 

"Kasumi called over the IMD," Ikki muttered. "Apparently, Fubuki went digging in several areas of the city's red-light district. She found several leads concerning Siden's disappearance, including..." 

"Including what?" asked Kaito. 

"...Someone named MACHINA," Ikki finished.   


=====   


"MACHINA?" repeated Makoru with some incredulity. "Did your friend say _MACHINA_?" 

Kaito nodded. "Yeah, that's what he said. Why? You know this character?" 

Makoru spat in disgust. "MACHINA's a well-known independent radical in the medabot-industry underground," she remarked. "Formerly a political left-wing party whip, Select Corp. administrative officer, and freelance medaparts developer. Not to mention, a dirty cheat of a medafighter." 

"How do you know all this?" asked Kaito. 

"When you're a RubberRobo, you learn all this stuff," Makoru said with a bit of chagrin. "That's just the basics." 

Kaito pondered for a moment. "I think my friends should talk to you," he finally stated. "What you know could be of vital importance. Mind making a quick visit to the Tenryou residence?"   
  
  


**To Be Continued...**


	9. Chapter 9: Complications

**STANDARD DISCLAIMER: ** I do not own Medabots, Medarot, nor anything related to the trademark. All rights, permissions, official characters, and concepts are properties of Imagineer Co. and Natsume.   


**Medabots: Open Ring**   
  


**Chapter IX : Complications**

=====   
  
  


_"Even the best laid plans will go awry."_   
**_- Cliches 101_**

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


=====   


Kasumi sighed as he returned his IMD back to its spot on the bookshelf. Turning to Hiyori and Granbeetle, he began to speak. "Well, that's about it. Ikki just called back, stating that Kaito's found someone that could be of interest concerning Siden's situation." 

"Anything else?" 

"This person is an ex-RubberRobo," added Kasumi with a brief, sharp exhalation. 

Granbeetle shook his head. "Should we even trust this fellow? I mean, think about it... What guarantee do we have that this person isn't laying some elaborate trap for us this very instant?" 

"All we have is Kaito's good faith," replied Kasumi. "Like we have any choice?" he continued. "Siden's life may be on the line, and any sort of help should be welcomed." 

There was a tap on the door of Kasumi's room as he finished talking. Blazer-Multi's voice sounded off on the other end. "Mr. Kasumi, Shingawa Kaito and a friend of his is here. Shall I let him inside?" 

"Yes, please do so," replied Kasumi. Turning back to Hiyori and Granbeetle, he shrugged. "Well, they're here. I guess the only thing left to do is get as much information as we can." 

The door opened as Kaito, Helixbeetle, and a girl with long black hair stepped into the room. The girl paused for a moment, and whispered something in Kasumi's ear, a look of concern on her face. 

Kaito simply nodded as he replied to the girl's whisper. "I'm sure they'll understand. You can let her come in." 

Kasumi and the others stared as the same VAL-type medabot that had gone missing at the Expo suddenly walked right into the room. Kasumi turned to Kaito, a puzzled expression on his face as he spoke. "What's the meaning of this, Kaito? Wasn't this the same medabot sto-" 

"Hold a minute, Kasumi, everything will be explained," Kaito replied as he held up a hand for silence. Turning to the girl standing next to him, he nodded her over to a chair and began to speak. "This is Makoru, formerly known in the RubberRobo gang as Sharkscout. She's got some information on that person you mentioned... MACHINA, was it?" 

Kasumi nodded. "Speaking of which, Fubuki's gone back to get more data, but I guess any sort of information would be good." He turned to Makoru. "So, what have you got?" 

Makoru shrugged. "Some information, including a bit of what the RubberRobos know about MACHINA. MACHINA is well-known in unsavory circles as a dishonest medafighter and rather shady dealer in black market components and medaparts. His actual name is Moyotema Kizure, former Select Corp. officer, politcal left-wing party whip, and he was also once an employee of Robattle-Research. Did some of the project work for Op. Neru." 

"Op. Neru? Who's this Op. Neru?" asked Hiyori. 

"Not who, _what_. Op. Neru, or Operation Neru, was a Robattle-Research project dealing with an experimental Valkyrie-type medabot called Neru. Neru proved to be a powerful medabot, but its instability in combat as well as its constant tendency to overwork its shielding designated it in the eyes of the developers as a failure. The project was shut down and Neru was stowed away somewhere on the Robattle-Research station known as CLUSTER-001." Makoru brushed some hair out of her face as she continued. "Getting back to Kizure, he's also been known for cutting no corners in trying to win a robattle, including using hidden EMP devices, as well as using medaparts and equipment that are designated as illegal by the World Robattle Regulations committees." 

"Has he ever been caught?" questioned Kasumi. 

"Not often," replied Makoru, "but his connections to Robattle-Research, Select Corp., as well as his substantial financial assets have always enabled him to grease the right pockets with his questionable lucre, which allowed him to get away scot-free every time he did get caught. Finally, Select Corp.'s chief executive was replaced with a more upstanding character, and Kizure was kicked off Select Corp.'s payroll." 

"What happened after that?" asked Blazer-Multi. 

"It's been said that he dropped his official name, took the handle of 'MACHINA', and disappeared somewhere into the city's underground after that," answered Makoru. "Some say that he's after Robattle-Research technology in order to get back to the top of the political heap. But that's all just a rumor. No one really knows where he is or what he's doing; the only clues he leaves are the traces of some well-planned break-in and a small calling card emblazoned with a picture of a cracked medal." 

"So, then, what's he got to do with Siden?" Granbeetle asked. 

"It's obvious. From what Kaito's told me, Siden was well-known with Robattle-Research's publicity department and VIP access coding, so he's essentially the skeleton key to the secrets of Robattle-Research. It wouldn't surprise me if MACHINA was trying to cut a deal with Siden to gain access to Robattle-Research and then abducted him when the bargaining turned sour." 

"One more question," Kasumi cut in. "How can we trust that what you're saying is true? After all, you're an ex-RubberRobo. How do we know that you're not laying some false track to take us off base?" 

Makoru's eyes narrowed as she spoke. "Listen here, bookworm. My ties with the RubberRobos are finished. Finished! They abandoned me! I risked my neck in order to get a pair of lousy medals, and all they did was leave me to the Select Corp.'s flunkies in order to ensure their own escape!!" 

There was an uncomfortable silence, as Kasumi reluctantly nodded. "All right. We'll take what you're saying as the truth... For the moment. Right now, we're going to go to Ikki's house in order to relay this information." 

Kaito turned to Makoru. "By the way, do you still have with you that medal you nicked from the storage facility?" 

Makoru nodded. "Yeah, why?" 

"I'm curious as to why your superiors wanted those medals," replied Kaito thoughtfully. "There's something about this that bothers me."   


=====   


"Metabee! Seeker missiles!!" 

"MISSILE LAUNCH!!" A pair of rocket-propelled projectiles shot down the length of the street, impacting head-on with Kantaroth's torso. Kantaroth took a massive tumble and collapsed to the ground. 

Rintaro wasn't fazed a bit. "Hang in there, Kantaroth! Get on your feet and give 'em a revolver shot!" 

Kantaroth struggled to his knees and immediately began to pelt a volley of slugs in Metabee's direction, as the older KBT-type immediately vaulted backwards and landed with a clunk onto the asphalt. 

"Go, Ikki!" cheered Erika. Brass looked on with unspoken admiration as the two Kabuto-types continued to duel along the length of the sidewalk. 

"Okay!" yelled Ikki into his medawatch. "Give it all you've got! Full power to all weapons!! BARRAGE!!" 

"You got i-Auuugh!!" Metabee was about to aim his submachine-gun and revolver when he suddenly dropped both his arms, fell to his knees onto the asphalt, and began clutching his left arm in agony as he simultaneously yelled. "Dammit, that hurts!!" 

Brass was the first to reach Metabee, as she tried to assist him back onto his feet. "What's wrong, Metabee?" 

Ikki soon reached the two medabots and tentatively raised Metabee's left arm, which he immediately lowered when Metabee gave another yell of pain. "What's this? What's going on, Metabee?" 

"I was about to go for the barrage when I felt this jarring surge in my Tin-Pet's left shoulder," Metabee explained as he tried his best to ignore his throbbing head. "Next thing I knew, I couldn't even lift my repeater arm!" 

Ikki cursed. "We're not going to be in any condition to compete in the World Robattle Cup if this gets worse... Erika, see if you can call Henry, maybe he can figure out what's going on." He turned to Rintaro. "Rintaro, I'm sorry about this, but we're going to have to continue our practice match later." 

Rintaro waved away the apology. "No problem, dude. Me and Kantaroth will be waiting anytime." 

"Hey, guys, what's going on?" 

Ikki and the others looked up to see Henry standing in front of the group, holding a couple of shopping bags. Ikki sighed in a bit of relief. "I was just about to send Erika off to call for you. There's a problem with Metabee's arm." 

"What? Gun-barrels jammed again?" joked Henry. 

"No. Rintaro and I were just robattling a few moments ago when Metabee suddenly couldn't lift his left arm," explained Ikki. "Or at the very least, he can't lift it without being in a massive amount of pain." 

"Hmm. Let me see that," murmured Henry as he set down his shopping bags and pulled out a small device. Kneeling next to Metabee, Henry hooking the device up to Metabee's left arm, he began pressing several buttons and then looked hard at Metabee's armor. He abruptly shook his head, disconnected the device, and got back on his feet. Turning to the others, he gave his diagnosis. "Metabee's parts are falling apart... all of them. Missile launcher pods warped and twisted from overheating, revolver locks torn, ochitsuiker knee joints battered... his submachine-gun arm, though, is in the worst condition. The internal circuitboard in the repeater is cracked, plus the casing is starting to fall apart from the inside, leaving foreign debris and metal fragments inside his Tin-Pet's joints." 

"So what?" Metabee muttered. "I can still roba-OWW!!" he yelled as his left arm sent off another paroxysm of pain. 

Henry pointed his index finger at Metabee's chest. "You, my metal-plated friend, are going nowhere for a while. If you keep trying to use your medaparts in the condition they're in, you're eventually going to put too much strain on that Tin-Pet of yours and permanently damage it; or even worse, break it completely beyond use." 

"So what can be done?" asked Brass worriedly. 

Henry shook his head again. "You're going to have to get new medaparts," he muttered. "The problem is, I don't have any more KBT-01 model series medaparts in stock at the hopmart, and I doubt that any of the other hopmarts or department stores carry them either. The KBT-01 model series was discontinued several years ago, even before I started as a medafighter." 

Ikki cursed. "So you're saying that Metabee's going to have to stay incapacitated for the rest of his operating life unless I can find new medaparts?" 

Henry nodded. "I'm afraid so." He thought for a moment, then his face lit up. "I've got an idea, why don't you go see Dr. Aki and ask if you could use some new KBT-type medaparts? I'm sure that he's got some somewhere in that massive office complex of his." 

Ikki looked up at Henry hopefully. "You think so?" 

"Yeah." Henry picked up his shopping bags and began walking again down the street as Ikki began transporting temporary medaparts for Metabee to use in order to move. 

Ikki took a long look at Metabee's original parts before recalling them back into storage with a drawn-out sigh. "Metabee, you're going to have to take it easy for a little bit until we can find some new KBT-type medaparts for you." 

"Well, you better hurry up," Metabee grumbled. "I have no intention of being laid up like some long-term member of a P.O.W. camp."   


=====   


Dr. Aki finished the last line of his data records and shut the terminal off as he slumped back in his rolling chair and sighed. It had been a long, difficult day at the complex, and with the need for repairs on the assembly lines damaged or destroyed by Luminoustag's attack, the mounting costs and pressures did not go well on his psyche. 

Suddenly, there was a buzz on the intercom. Wearily leaning over and pushing one of the flashing 'receive' buttons, Dr. Aki began speaking. "Dr. Aki here. Something wrong, secretary?" 

"No," replied Dr. Aki's secretary. "But someone named Ikki Tenryou was quite insistent on seeing you at this moment, sir. Shall I let them in?" 

Dr. Aki smiled at the tenacity of his former pupil. "Sure, why not? Send them in right now." Clicking off the intercom, he got up and stretched as he tried his best to make his office look more presentable within the short amount of time before Ikki came in. 

The door opened, and Ikki Tenryou came in, followed by a medabot that seemed to be essentially a mix of different parts, almost as if the parts had been randomly slapped together at the last moment to make a working system. Dr. Aki smiled at the two. 

"So, what brings you here, Ikki? This ramshackle medabot?" 

"RAMSHACKLE!?" the medabot bellowed. 

"Hush, Metabee," Ikki motioned as he tried to calm the medabot down. Dr. Aki lifted an eyebrow. 

"Metabee? That's Metabee? What happened? He's certainly got the same attitude." 

Ikki turned somewhat apologetically to Dr. Aki. "Well, Metabee's parts are deteriorating, and unless I find some new KBT-type parts soon, I won't be able to use Metabee anymore. His parts have gone so bad that Henry says that if I use them anymore, his Tin-Pet will be damaged." 

Dr. Aki nodded. "I see. Yes, that's common in older medaparts. Have you tried getting replacements?" 

"I just checked all of the surrounding hopmarts and department stores in town... They're all out of stock on KBT-01 series models. I don't know what to do." 

Dr. Aki pondered the situation for a moment, and then remembered something. "Wait, I forgot something that I was supposed to give you, Ikki. Now's a good a time as any to give you this, seeing the trouble you're in," he finished as he began opening one of the closets in his office. Pulling out a large, oblong white box, Dr. Aki wheeled it out of its niche in the closet and set it down on the ground in front of Ikki and Metabee. 

Metabee looked somewhat suspiciously at it. "Just what is that?" 

Dr. Aki merely grinned. "Open it." 

With a puzzled glance at Metabee and Dr. Aki, Ikki promptly unclamped the straps that held the lid shut and lifted the lid off. 

A few moments later, Ikki and Metabee could be heard loudly cheering from Dr. Aki's office.   


=====   


Siden continued to sit inside his rusty cell, still pondering over what he'd just seen. 

_Ragnarok..._

The weaponry that was intended for the Apocalypse-type medabot simply staggered Siden's mind. To destroy entire cities... Siden conceded that the idea had been well thought out, but... 

Siden shook his head. MACHINA was definitely a lunatic gone loose from the asylum. A slight whispering noise suddenly caught Siden's ear, almost as if he'd felt something slip by his cage. The young teenager got to his feet and peered out into the darkened chamber, still unable to see exactly what was on the other side of the bars on his cell. 

Siden abruptly jumped back as he came face to face with two gleaming red eyes... Luminoustag's eyes. 

"I see that you're awake." 

Siden's eyes narrowed. "No thanks to you. What are you doing here anyway? To mock my current predicament?" 

Luminoustag simply stepped out from the shadows that concealed him and sat down near Siden's cell. "Unlikely. I have something else in mind." 

Siden spat in disgust. "And why should I be stupid enough to listen to you? You're just one of MACHINA's pawns. And even if you weren't, you'd backstab me the first moment it would be to your advantage." 

Luminoustag looked up at Siden. "Because I'm your only key to getting out of here alive... Am I right?" 

Siden's eyes narrowed even further as he answered. "Why should I trust you?." 

Luminoustag vented an electronic sigh and shook his armored head. "Because I do not agree with MACHINA's actions. His plan is pointless. I suspected as much the first day he came to me with his proposition." 

"What sort of proposition?" asked Siden suspiciously. 

"He was supposed to get for me information regarding my origin in return for my abilities," replied the blue KWG-type. "My developers had always told me back on CLUSTER-001 that I was meant to be a weapon of war. At first, I accepted it as the truth and as the purpose of my existence. However, one day during some tactics trials I overheard an argument between one of my custodians and an agent of sorts who was identified with a rogue military group that called itself STARLEAF." 

Siden abruptly interrupted Luminoustag. "STARLEAF? Did you say STARLEAF?" 

Luminoustag nodded. "My custodian was trying to convince the STARLEAF agent that it was for the best if I were told of my past. However, the agent flatly refused the request, and said that it would be better if I was kept ignorant about my origins." 

"What happened after that?" 

"The argument soon flared up and became uncontrollable," continued Luminoustag. "The agent then lost his temper and gunned the custodian down. When he stepped back into the room I was in, I took the only action I felt was logical. I slipped away from the agent as quietly as possible and escaped on a shuttle bound for Earth. I've spent my days ever since then wandering the city streets, looking for answers to my questionable origin." 

"And that was when MACHINA came to you with his 'proposition'?" 

"Yes. However, he's been nothing short of unscrupulous. I've been at his beck and call for nearly a year now, and he still hasn't handed me any sort of information regarding my past." 

"So, what are you going to do now?" asked Siden with a raised eyebrow. 

With a quick swing of his sword arm, Luminoustag suddenly sliced the bars of Siden's cell apart. Siden stared at the KWG-type in surprise. 

"I am going to get you out of here," replied Luminoustag. "MACHINA's plan is nothing short of lunacy. There is nothing left for me here. But I do have one request... Both from me, and from my deceased custodian." 

Siden shrugged as he stared at the pieces of the cell bars lying on the floor. "Well, you've done me a favor, that's for certain... All right, what's your request?" 

Luminoustag stared up at the ceiling of the chamber. "Once this is over, just try your best to find out where I came from. That's all I ask."   


=====   


MACHINA opened the door with a cynical air as his lackeys began to switch on the lights. "Well, young Siden, have we had a restful sleep? I'm 'pleased' to announce that Ragnarok is-" The hooded figure stopped short of his last statement as the lights of the chamber illuminated the scene in front of him. Siden's cell was completely empty, its bars hacked to pieces. 

One of MACHINA's lackeys bent down and picked up one of the bars of Siden's cell. "Looks like it was cut by some sharp object. Should I-" 

MACHINA interrupted him coldly. "Luminoustag." 

"Hmmm?" asked the lackey. 

MACHINA turned to the lackey. "Are you deaf, you stupid sap!? This is Luminoustag's doing. Get everybody combing this complex from top to bottom! I want that boy found!" The hooded man began to pace the floor and curse. "This is the worst time for this to happen! Ragnarok's medals aren't even ready..." He turned back and stormed out of the room as he began to mutter a single line to himself. "So it seems that what Tensuo said was true. 'Pawns will turn against their players, and the slaves their masters'."   


=====   


Ashton stood waiting on the balcony of Siden's room, still watching, still waiting. A swirling train of thought passed through his mind. 

_First meeting... A young brown-haired boy, dressed in a suit, surrounded by well-wishers at his birthday party. A smile, and a simple wave. A giggle runs through. More thoughts..._

_First robattle... Smoke. Crackling bullets. Explosions. A single, solitary shot of an energy break... A pounding slam of an armored fist. Victory. Cheers. Praise. His smiling master._

_More robattles. More opponents. More victories. And losses._

_CLUSTER-001. Kasumi. Granbeetle. Loss. Respect. Chaos. Sirens. Master. NAVI. Escape. Survival._

Ashton's computerized mind suddenly cleared as Granbeetle's voice cut through his reminiscing like a cleaver. "Hey Ashton, buddy, are you okay?" 

Ashton turned around and nodded at Granbeetle as he walked back into Siden's room. "Yes. I was just thinking about Master Siden. I'm still worried about him. You don't think that... he's dead, is he?" 

Granbeetle considered for a moment. "Well, judging by how well I know him, I doubt that he's dead... yet. He's a fighter, remember that. Just like you. So, I wouldn't worry about him if I were in your shoes." 

"Well... Thanks at least for the encouragement, Granbeetle... I'm just a little unsure about how this is all going to turn out. I've never handled the household by myself before, and everyone's still so worried. There's so much pressure for me without Master to handle it all." 

There was a knock at the door. Granbeetle turned. "Yeah? Someone there?" 

"It's Blazer-Multi and Skyelder. Can we come in?" 

"Oh. Uhm, yeah, you guys can come in." Granbeetle sheepishly replied. 

The BLZ and VAL-type medabots shyly walked into the room, staring at the ground. "Any news?" asked Blazer-Multi. 

Granbeetle shook his head. "Nope. Still drawing blanks." He turned towards the French-style doors that led out to the balcony and emitted a plaintive sigh. "Kasumi's not getting any sleep lately. He's really worried about Siden too. I keep telling him not to sweat it, but..." 

"...He's always worried when something troubles a friend," finished Blazer-Multi. "I guess it's something that humans have that we do not. Hearts." 

"Really? I've always felt differently." 

The four medabots turned sharply towards the direction of the voice. Standing in the doorway was Helixbeetle, regarding the three somewhat curiously. 

"What do you want, Helixbeetle?" asked Granbeetle in a somewhat suspicious tone. 

The gray-green KBT-type medabot shrugged his shoulders. "Not much. I was just passing by when I overheard you three talking." He turned to Blazer-Multi. "So you're saying that medabots don't have hearts? That's a pretty interesting viewpoint. My old boss used to say that real hearts weren't something physical... That they were something invisible deep inside your soul, your inner being." 

"So, you're saying that medabots are capable of feelings?" asked Blazer-Multi. "I've always felt that medabots were... incapable of having feelings." 

"Well, let's take what you just said," replied Helixbeetle. "You said that you 'felt'. You can only feel if you have a heart. Anybody can have... or lack a heart. Humans, medabots, aliens... You name it, you got it. When you stop caring about anything at all, that's when you've lost your heart. And when you find you feel deeply about something in your life, something you consider important, then you've gained a heart." 

"Do you care about something in the way you described, Helixbeetle? To the point that you could consider yourself having a heart?" asked Ashton. 

Helixbeetle nodded slowly. "I do. My deceased boss. Kaito... and everyone whom he considers a friend." 

Helixbeetle began to walk back out the door when Skyelder suddenly grabbed his left arm. Helixbeetle looked at the white and gold VAL-type medabot curiously. "Something... wrong, Skyelder?" 

Skyelder looked at him intently. "Just... just what sort of medabot are you really? You sound almost... almost human." 

Helixbeetle looked at the open door for a moment, then chuckled as he turned to the four. "The world is a strange place. Stranger things have happened, Skyelder. Stranger things..." 

The next moment, Helixbeetle was no longer standing in the room, as the four remaining medabots pondered the gray-green KBT-type's words.   


=====   


Kasumi, Hiyori, Kaito, and Makoru were sitting out on the porch of Siden's mansion as they finished their discussion concerning their next course of action. Kasumi yawned and stretched his arms as he got up off the cement pad. "Well... let's all go inside and get some sleep. We've got a lot to do tomorrow." 

Kaito however, wasn't paying attention to Kasumi's remark. The black-haired medafighter was instead looking out into the evening's darkness, towards the street that bisected the driveway. "That's funny..." he muttered. 

"What?" asked Hiyori. 

Makoru pointed at something shifting in the shadows. "Someone's coming up the path." 

Kasumi and Hiyori started back in shock as they suddenly saw Siden walking up the driveway, with a very familiar-looking blue KWG-type medabot following close behind. 

Siden walked up to the front door as the group stared at the formerly-missing teenager's dirty and bedraggled form. "This is a fine greeting," Siden said with a grin. "I get abducted, imprisoned, kept up for several nights, I finally make it home, and all you guys can do is stare?" 

Hiyori was the first to manage to get in a reply. "B-but... But what happened? How did you escape!? And why is Luminoustag with you?" 

Siden held up a hand for silence. "I'll explain what's happened in due time," he replied. "But first, Luminoustag here wants to give us a message." 

Luminoustag blinked at the quartet standing on the porch, then spoke. 

"To all of Siden's friends, I bring you this message: Beware, for the beginning of the end... has come."   
  
  


**To Be Continued...**


	10. Chapter 10: Armaggedon's Birth

**STANDARD DISCLAIMER: ** I do not own Medabots, Medarot, nor anything related to the trademark. All rights, permissions, official characters, and concepts are properties of Imagineer Co. and Natsume.   


**Medabots: Open Ring**   
  


**Chapter X : Armaggedon's Birth**

=====   
  
  


_"For the sky will rain fire and sulphur, and the world will tremble in great fear and agony on the day that the Apocalypse comes."_   
**_- Sermon of the Third Latent_**

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


=====   


"Ragnarok? What's Ragnarok?" 

The group had reconvened the next morning at the breakfast table after a long night of listening to Siden's story and comparing the information they had gathered. The breakfast of eggs and rice was being served up cheerfully by Ashton, who had been overjoyed to see that his medafighter had returned. Luminoustag, who was standing nearby hooked up to a computer monitor, explained the matter to Kasumi as he simultaneously flashed several pictures of a strange-looking, gigantic black medabot. 

"Ragnarok is an APO, or Apocalypse-type medabot that MACHINA has built for the sole purpose of threatening the existence of densely-populated cities like Tokyo and New York," the KWG-type medabot explained. "When I managed to hack into MACHINA's server, I leeched several files from his critical databanks, and uncovered Ragnarok's technical files. The specifications call for several weapons of extremely high magnitude and black-market origin, including a pair of full-size nuclear ICBMs. Judging from the last week's progress reports on the project, the medapart system has been finished and thoroughly tested, rendering it ready for use." 

Kaito shook his head. "So what's preventing him from trying it out now?" 

"Only one thing," replied Luminoustag. "A medal... Or, to be more specific," he added, "two medals." 

"Why two?" asked Kasumi. 

"The design that MACHINA had created is arranged in a very unorthodox structure," explained Siden. "Judging from the circuit connections, the design essentially consists of two separate medabots interlocked into a single unit, which is also capable of splitting at will in order to work as a team." 

Kaito stared at the data for a moment, then suddenly turned to Makoru. "Wait a minute... Didn't _your _RubberRobo bosses want you to get two medals from the HEX Corp. storage facility?" 

Makoru nodded as she thought back to that unpleasant event. "That's right... Two medals." 

Siden was about to say something when the sounds of gunfire and cursing from a certain KBT-type medabot greeted the ears of those present at the dining table. Kasumi sprang up from his seat. "Sounds like Granbeetle! He may be in trouble!"   


=====   


The group scrambled up the stairs, only to have a grim sight meet their eyes as they walked into the guest room that Kaito and Makoru were using. Craters and pick-pock marks dotted the walls, signs of a battle having passed only moments before. Granbeetle was collaring a battered TIR-type medabot by its neck as Skyelder stared out the window. Helixbeetle and Blazer-Multi were busy trying to straighten out the room's contents. 

"What happened here?" asked Kasumi in amazement and consternation. 

"We were all in the next room watching some television when we heard somebody climbing in through this window," answered Granbeetle angrily as he continued to shake the medabot he'd captured by the scruff of its neck. "We walked in to investigate and found a group of RubberRobos making off with the case containing the medal that Makoru had gotten from the HEX Corp. facility. When they saw us, they reacted by beaming in several of their medabots to keep us at bay. We beat their little wind-up toys, but those goons managed to get away scot-free with the medal," Granbeetle finished as he turned back to the battered medabot he was throttling. "All right, you creep! Spill! Who's the guy who sent you!?" 

"Take it easy, Granbeetle," remarked Kasumi as he motioned for his KBT-type medabot to put his victim down. 

Luminoustag walked into the room, staring at the medabot for a moment. "I do believe I've seen you before... Cloudskimmer." 

Kaito looked at the PTL-type medabot with a hard eye before turning to the blue KWG-type. "You know this character?" The PTL-type medabot was plated in red armor, and bore a strong resemblance to those prehistoric flying reptiles, the pterodactyls, that it was modeled on. 

The medabot that Granbeetle had been collaring only a moment before began to nervously scramble up against the wall behind him, as if trying to dig his way out of the mansion. "I... I don't know what you're talking about!!" 

"On the contrary," murmured Luminoustag, "you were with that STARLEAF agent about an year ago on CLUSTER-001... Right before your medafighter killed my custodian. Does that ring a bell?" 

The PTL-type trembled somewhat, but shook his head as he vehemently answered. "No! I don't know what you're talking about!!" 

"Wrong call, buster," muttered Granbeetle as he picked the PTL-type up again and this time shoved a gun barrel into its face. "Now talk, before I pop that medal out of your bracket by blasting your Tin-Pet's faceplate to kingdom come!" 

The PTL-type raised its arms in panic and gesticulated wildly. "All right! All right! I'll talk! Just don't shoot!" 

Granbeetle dropped Cloudskimmer roughly onto the carpeted floor while still keeping his revolver trained on the Pterodactyl-type's faceplate. "No funny stuff now! Just the facts!" 

The PTL-type gave an electronic gulp, and started to speak. "Yes, my medafighter _was_ with STARLEAF for about two years until he killed the CLUSTER-001 developer. I wasn't even aware that he'd done it until he told me later while on the shuttle. He was caught, arrested, and court-martialed out of STARLEAF for causing such a scandal, and afterwards joined the RubberRobos." 

"What do the RubberRobos want with that medal they stole?" interrogated Helixbeetle. 

Cloudskimmer scrabbled frantically back against the bullet-riddled wall. "I-I don't know! All they said to my boss was that if he and his group were unable to get back the medal they wanted, they would answer for their failure to some guy called MACHINA-" 

"Wait a minute!" interrupted Siden. "You said MACHINA?" 

The PTL-type nodded vigorously. 

Makoru abruptly spat in contempt. "As I suspected. They've been working with MACHINA's organization... But why? What would convince them to drop their old enmities and join forces?" 

Kaito turned to the ex-RubberRobo. "Are you saying that the RubberRobos and MACHINA's group have been at odds?" 

Makoru nodded. "They've been enemies ever since MACHINA first made his presence known in the city's underground. MACHINA was nothing more than competition for their special assignments, smuggling runs and black-market auctions." 

Siden rubbed his chin. "I think the others should know about this... By the way, Makoru, what did this stolen medal have on its front?" 

Makoru thought hard for a moment. "There was a picture of some sort of cherub or small angel carved into it, as well as the letter 'I' on the top of its outside border." 

Siden nodded as the information confirmed one of his suspicions. "Just as I thought. It's the other piece of MACHINA's gambit." 

"Uhm, pardon?" muttered Kasumi as he scratched his head in bewilderment. 

Siden turned to Kasumi. "Remember, Kasumi, MACHINA intended to use two specific medals in Ragnarok. One of them matches the description of the medal Makoru absconded at the HEX Corp. facility." 

"So where's the other one?" asked Hiyori. 

"It... it's with them," muttered Makoru in sudden realization as she remembered what had happened that day. "I left the other one I stole with one of my teammates the day we stole those medals from the facility." 

"So the RubberRobos now have both medals," said Kasumi in a crestfallen manner. "And by connection, MACHINA has them as well." 

Siden turned to Ashton. "Ashton, get me Ikki Tenryou and the others. Tell them to meet me here as soon as possible. Ragnarok has come." 

Luminoustag turned and stared out the shattered window that the RubberRobos had escaped through as he suddenly muttered out loud a single line of soliloquy that had instantaneously popped into his head. 

"Ragnarok comes... Mortals beware, for death has come to your world."   


=====   


MACHINA silently stood on the metal deck, overlooking the final culmination of all his dreams, efforts, struggles, and battles... Ragnarok. He allowed himself a small, wan smile of self-satisfaction as he thought back to the final dealings between him and the RubberRobos. 

Those fools had played right into his hand, now becoming little more than useless pawns in his game. His game and his game only. 

He nodded to himself in quiet approval as he observed the final medal programming, check-through and systems check of the Ragnarok's hulking black mass, and then stepped down to the lower level where the APO-type medabot stood. 

One of the lackeys standing nearby immediately gave a salute and indicated a clipboard he was holding. "Ragnarok weapons and logic systems are okayed for go time. Awaiting your orders, sir." 

MACHINA nodded in reply. "Acknowledged. Begin Armaggedon's Path." As the final system countdown began to engage, a small, tickling thought wormed its way through his brain with a bit of bemused irony. 

_So, Tensuo... It now appears that it is **my** game. Checkmate._   


=====   


Ikki, Metabee, Erika, and Brass were heading in the direction of Siden's home. While on the way, Erika turned to Ikki. "Ikki, what exactly does Siden want with us?" 

"Don't know exactly," Ikki answered. "Siden told me that 'Ragnarok had come'. I tried to ask him for more details, but he cut me off and told me that he'd explain everything once we got there." 

"By the way, uhm, Metabee, you look very... nice," added Brass as she turned to the KBT-type medabot that was walking next to her. The Sailor-type was commenting on the new set of KBT-type medaparts that Metabee had gotten, courtesy of Dr. Aki. 

Metabee's faceplate turned bright red as he chuckled a bit. "Uh, yeah, yeah... It fits me, doesn't it..." 

The new set of medaparts that Metabee had gained from Dr. Aki were somewhat different than the original parts that Metabee had possessed, including structure and color. The entire armor was a brighter yellow-orange, the missile pods had red tips instead of holes, and the shoulder pods were black with yellow tips, instead of being uniformly black. Metabee's torso and legs were slightly different in structure as well. 

Ikki also added his own comment to Metabee's new set of parts with a mischievous grin. "Yeah, it does fit you. For one thing, it doesn't make you look like a dork so much..." 

Metabee's missile pods began to steam and whistle as he angrily snapped at his medafighter. "DORK!? WHY I'LL...!!" 

Ikki waved in apology. "Just kidding Metabee, just kidding..." 

"Hmph," Metabee muttered. 

Ikki slowly turned his glance back to Erika as his expression became a little serious. "By the way, Erika, when we get back home, can we talk... you know, someplace where we're alone?" 

Erika looked at Ikki a little curiously as she nodded slowly. "Uhm, yeah, I guess..." 

"Thanks. I was s-" Ikki's eyes suddenly caught a brilliant flare of light gleaming out from a group of high-rise buildings. As Ikki abruptly stopped to watch the phenomenon, Erika and Brass similarly halted as they noticed Ikki's lack of movement and the flare of light as they tried to get Ikki's attention. 

Brass was the first to speak. "Wh-what is that thing?" 

Ikki shielded his eyes as he noticed that the flare of light was slowly traveling up into the sky. "I... I don't know. Erika? Do you know?" 

Erika shook her head as she copied Ikki's action. "No."   


=====   


Siden rubbed his eyes as he tried to readjust them from the shock he'd just gotten. Kasumi and the others were similarly struggling to get their eyes and optics sensors to normal sensitivity. 

The group had been standing in Siden's room when the flash had hit them through the large window overlooking Siden's desk, sending everyone reeling as they instinctively shut their eyes closed a moment too late. 

Hiyori groaned as she continued to squint. "Did someone get the serial number of the flashlight that blinded me?" 

Siden blinked several times to make sure that his eyes were still working, and turned to Ashton. "Ashton, get me a geo-scan of that location, and give a wide-area sweep! I want to know what happened there!" 

Ashton nodded as he plugged himself into Siden's computer. "Acknowledged. Scanning now..." 

Blazer-Multi turned to Granbeetle, who was still trying to recalibrate his optics from the shock he'd received. "What was that? A supernova?" 

Granbeetle shook his head. "Nah... can't be. There isn't a single star for several million kilometers around capable of delivering such a phenomenon. Kasumi showed me his star charts and data maps several months ago, and not one of them were even close to the size necessary for such a thing." 

Ashton abruptly disconnected himself and turned to Siden. "Master, I've got several data and media files relating to what happened just a few minutes before. Data ranges from message board activity to chatline conversations, as well as several realtime media feedback footage." 

Siden rubbed his chin as he indicated his choice to Ashton. "Bring up the feedback footage. Set for maximum bandwidth." 

Ashton nodded again as he plugged himself back into the computer and opened a new viewing window onto the monitor screen. "Satellite feedback initiated. Realtime footage now downloading..." 

"Satellite footage?" asked Kaito. "Does that mean-" 

"Download completed. Now running," Ashton interrupted as he began to play back the media file. Everyone suddenly began to cluster around Siden's chair as they all stared at what they saw on the screen. 

Makoru was the first to find enough voice to speak. "By the gods... This is utter madness," she managed to murmur in a hushed tone. 

On the screen was a piece of surveillance footage showing a monstrous, black medabot flying upwards into the clear blue sky, carrying an ICBM on a huge mounting bracket... and a nuclear-hazard symbol stamped onto its warhead payload.   


=====   


Ikki tentatively lowered his arm as the brilliant glare slowly dissipated, reverting back to the regular brightness of mid-morning. Erika and Brass soon also lowered their arms. 

As Ikki was about to remark on something, several Select Corp. squad cars began tearing down the lane they were standing in, forcing the trio to jump backwards onto the concrete sidelanes as the cars continued to wail down the street, their sirens flashing an eerie red and blue tattoo onto the buildings lining the street. 

Erika rubbed her eyes one last time and then turned to Ikki again. "What's going on here?" 

Ikki was about to reply when a massive explosion suddenly rocked the street, sending the Select Corp. squad cars and the trio tumbling backwards. 

Brass was the first to get to her feet as she looked up in horror at what she saw. "Miss Erika! Look!!" 

Ikki, Metabee and Erika raised their heads and watched in absolute shock as they witnessed a huge, black medabot seem to literally tear upwards into the sky, bristling with a fearsome variety of weapons. 

There was a small beeping sound as Ikki's IMD(Instant Messaging Device) began to notify its owner that a message was present. Flipping the IMD's cover open, Ikki pushed a few keys and abruptly stared at the screen.   


RRebel>> I'm assuming that you saw something out of the ordinary... Am I correct, Ikki?   


Ikki frowned as he typed in a reply.   


Ikki-10>> Yeah... Saw something strange. What was it? 

RRebel>> Ragnarok. 

Ikki-10>> Ragnarok? 

RRebel>> A madman's dream. Of triggering the beginning... of the end.   


=====   


"Damnit!!!" 

Lt. Katoko pounded an armored fist onto his desk, as he angrily regarded the stony, impassive faces of several of his men. Silverthorn stood nearby in the shadows, an eerie yellow eye glowing from his half-masked faceplate. 

The lieutenant had not been pleased by the lack of progress concerning the break-in at the Omega-31 sector storage facility. He continued to let his fiery glares bore into the visored faces of his men as he finally flung a clipboard onto his desk and sighed. "Do you know how much trouble this sort of matter gives me!? To think that you, all of you, the best of Select Corp.'s men would fail-!!" Katoko flung his hands up in despair as he regarded the faces of his men with a look that was now more despondent than condemning. After a moment's silence, he continued speaking. 

"For fifteen years, I've stood at this post of Lieutenant... I thought I could always determine my own future by being firm, vigilant, immovable... All the qualities encouraged and glorified at the Select Corp. academy. And what did I see the moment I stepped through the doors of this station I'm now situated in? A bribery in progress, being accepted by a high-ranking officer, no less!! The exact sort of thing that the Select Corp. is supposed to prevent and punish!" The lieutenant abruptly fell silent as he glanced back at the clipboard. 

There was a small message on the clipboard, signed and designated as having originated from an anonymous sender. Three lines only. 

**Name: Makoru.**   
**Alias: Sharkscout.**   
**Location: Former HEX Corp. office complex.**

Katoko's face abruptly turned upwards in a smile, as he regarded the information that he'd suddenly received. He slowly looked up, as he regarded the faces of his men with satisfaction. 

"Men, it seems that we have a small lead here... Shall we investigate?"   


=====   


"So, what's our next action?" asked Ikki. 

Siden frowned as he regarded the footage as it continually replayed on the monitor. "I'm not quite sure. The thing that concerns me is that this Ragnarok fellow is apparently heading on a direct trajectory for CLUSTER-001." 

"CLUSTER-001?" asked Kasumi. "Why there?" 

"It is quite explainable," answered Luminoustag. "CLUSTER-001 is currently in a sustained, continual free-fall orbit despite its inactive status, meaning that it is constantly moving in a stable, circular motion. With the nuclear ICBM payload that Ragnarok is carrying, it would be a simple matter for Ragnarok to target any location or position it would so desire from CLUSTER-001's location." 

"So you mean that this sucker's intending to nuke us...?" asked Fubuki. She nervously fiddled with her green beret as she continued to sit on a nearby sofa. 

"Not exactly," Siden replied as he closed the movie and pulled up some schematics onto the monitor. Pointing to a small blueprint that looked like the ICBM that Ragnarok had been carrying, Siden continued. "Ragnarok is carrying only two ICBMs, as the rest of its systems space is taken up by its dual-medal system binding array, variable weapons systems and the heavy armor it wears. Each ICBM is only capable of taking down one city apiece." 

"What are you getting at here!?" asked Samantha with some impatience. The Screws' leader as well as Sloan and Spyke were lounging nearby on some armchairs. 

"What I'm getting at, Miss Samantha," Siden replied with a slight edge of annoyance in his voice, "is that this medabot is not intending to aim his ICBMs at Earth..." 

"So where?" asked Hiyori. 

"...It is intending to aim it at the Moon," Siden finished. 

Everyone else except Ashton and Luminoustag immediately exclaimed the same statement simultaneously. "THE MOON!!?" 

Siden nodded. "Yes, the moon. It makes obvious sense. The moon's much smaller than Earth, and due to its low mass, it is much more fragile than Earth's composition. A direct hit from Ragnarok's ICBMs would be able to completely turn the Moon into a new asteroid field filled with quite a few planetary bodies at least several miles long... And with the close proximity to Earth's gravity, these fragments would inevitably be drawn in towards Earth, causing..." Siden abruptly shrugged as he continued. "Well, you can probably guess the rest." 

Kaito pondered for a moment. "So what's our options? We could launch missiles up at CLUSTER-001... I've heard that its automated defense systems are inactive." 

Siden shook his head. "Impractical. Ragnarok's only using CLUSTER-001 as an anchor... it's relying on its own weapons systems to protect CLUSTER-001's mass, and due to its weapons array, it could probably shoot down every ICBM we'd send at it. 

Makoru suddenly spoke up. "Wait a minute. I was looking over the schematics this morning, and something just occurred to me. Ragnarok was intended to be controlled by a remote relay system by MACHINA's men... if we could trace the source message relay system to wherever it's currently located, couldn't we shut Ragnarok down from there?" 

Siden's face brightened. "That just might do the trick. If we can somehow find the location from which MACHINA is sending his orders to Ragnarok, we could be able to incapacitate Ragnarok before it can do any harm." He went back to his workstation and began typing in several commands. "I'll begin a signal-trace relay... With luck, the signal matrices should be able to bring something up soon." 

"Well, then, what are we waiting for, guys?" asked Kasumi as he turned to the others. "Let's get going!" 

The others nodded as they began walking out the door to various sources they would survey. 

Kaito gestured to Makoru, Skyelder and Helixbeetle to follow him as he slipped out a nearby window. "I'll help out with NAVI... With Siden's own resources and everyone else working together, I'm sure that we'll be able to stop this in time." 

Siden nodded back in reply. "Good luck guys! And good hunting!"   


=====   


Makoru abruptly turned to Kaito as they were walking back to the HEX Corp. facility. "Say, Kaito, you never told me how you ended up here on the streets... Just why are you living by yourself? You have no parents? No close family relations?" 

Kaito's face darkened as he shook his head and made his reply. "No... no family. Their absence is the reason for my current situation. They were murdered several months ago. I was then taken to live at an orphanage, but I soon found something that changed the plans I had for my future." 

"What?" asked Makoru. 

"A last will and testament from my late parents and uncle, Shingawa Tensuo," Kaito answered. "His will led me to finding Helixbeetle in the HEX Corp. buildling," he finished as he gestured to the KBT-type medabot walking nearby. 

Makoru nodded. "I see... We're so similar, aren't we, Kaito. We've both lost something that we hold dear, and yet..." 

"...We can't let go of our past," Kaito suddenly finished. 

Makoru paused for a moment, then slowly nodded. Looking up, she noticed the towers of the HEX Corp. facility looming over the trees in the distance. "Well, we're almost there. I'll go a-" 

A deep, menacing voice suddenly spoke out of the shadows. "Don't make another move, Sharkscout. You, _and_ your little friend. Select Corp. has some some accounts to settle with you." 

Makoru, Kaito, as well as their two medabots, abruptly spun around as they noticed that they had been completely surrounded by Select Corp. agents and their medabots, the medabots' guns being trained on the quartet standing in the clearing. Two figures strode towards them, the taller one being enveloped in a thick cloak which he wore like a burial shroud. 

Makoru spat in disgust as she recognized the face of the taller figure. "Lt. Katoko..."   
  
  


**To Be Continued...**


	11. Chapter 11: Fatalistic Rivalry

**STANDARD DISCLAIMER: ** I do not own Medabots, Medarot, nor anything related to the trademark. All rights, permissions, official characters, and concepts are properties of Imagineer Co. and Natsume.   


**Medabots: Open Ring**   
  


**Chapter XI : Fatalistic Rivalry - (Feat. "Down and Dirty")**

=====   
  
  


_"Competition... The spur of contest, the goad of the accursed."_   
**- Second Maxim**

  
  
  
  
  
  
  


=====   


**Quick note:**

This chapter, through inspiration from the written structure made by Legend Maker in Chapter 4 of "War's Song", features a song that I had written in my freshman year of high school for a small English assignment. The title that I gave to this song was "Down and Dirty", and was derived from troubles I faced when I first came to high school. Anyways, onwards!   


=====   


Kaito looked at Lt. Katoko with a hard eye. "Under arrest? I find that extremely hard to believe." 

The Select Corp. lieutenant merely smiled as he turned to a figure in the shadows. "You would then better start by believing it, kid. Let's see... Sergeant Hitome, do you have anything of interest to report?" 

A portly Select Corp. agent walked out from underneath the copse of nearby trees and saluted smartly. "Several illegal server set-ups, including that of a 'cracker' connection. Not to mention this..." the sergeant finished with a contemptuous gesture as he backed away, revealing two more Select Corp. agents, and hanging between them, the limp form of a white KWG-type medabot. 

Kaito stepped forward involuntarily as he stared at the battered Sonicstag in dismay. "Sonicstag! What happened!?" 

Sonicstag managed to raise his head as he looked up weakly at the stunned Kaito. "They... overwhelmed me. I couldn't take them all-" The white KWG-type gave a sound of agonized pain as the two Select Corp. agents that were carrying him roughly threw him onto the ground. Katoko walked over, and after looking Sonicstag over for a trifling moment, suddenly gave the KWG-type medabot a brutal kick which sent him sprawling further into the dirt. 

Kaito's expression of horror changed into a gaze of pure anger as he looked up at the lieutenant. "Why you... you BASTARD!!!" Ceasing to speak another word, the young medafighter charged towards Katoko with a yell of fury, and was promptly tripped up by the extended leg of a nearby Select Corp. agent. Kaito stumbled and was sent sprawling into the dust in a similar fashion to that of Sonicstag. 

The lieutenant and several of his men laughed scornfully. "Pathetic. You want to give it another go?" the lieutenant asked with derisive solicitation. 

"You're even more pathetic than a legion of Kaitos put together." 

Everyone looked up in surprise at Helixbeetle, whom up to this point had remained completely silent. The KBT-type medabot walked up to Kaito's side and had begun to help Kaito onto his feet when he looked up at the Lieutenant with a hard glare in his visor. 

"You're just like all the other bullies and weak-minded fools I've met while my old boss was still alive. Making yourselves appear strong by picking on those weaker than you, and making yourselves stoop even lower by glorifying the downfall of those stronger than you." Helixbeetle electronically spat in contempt as he finished. "You disgust me." 

Katoko, however, didn't even bat an eyelash as he regarded the gray-green KBT-type medabot with slight amusement and interest. After a moment's consideration, he turned his steely gaze upon Kaito. "Interesting... I've never seen a medabot with a personality quite like yours, kid." After another moment of thoughtful pondering, Katoko continued. "Tell you what. I'm a coarse gambling man in my free time, and it often amuses me to challenge fellows with a similar gambler's instincts, namely; reckless courage and fine-tuned instinct." 

"I find it rather difficult to convince myself that the 'honorable' lieutenant has such qualities," Makoru muttered out loud to Skyelder. 

"Regardless," continued the lieutenant, as if ignoring the ex-RubberRobo's curt remark, "I have a small... 'proposition' for you. Frankly, your medabot's rather... 'gutsy' personality here piques my curiosity. Although I am not a professional medafighter, I enjoy playing in robattles and have often won. So here is my challenge: If you agree to take me on in a one-on-one robattle and if you win, I will let you and all of your friends go. I will act as if nothing here had ever happened, and as if I had known nothing about this at all. If you lose..." 

"Yeah?" Kaito spat with a slight grimace. 

"I will simply proceed to take all of you, including your medabots, into custody. Does that sound fair?" The lieutenant had a smug grin on his face as he finished the sentence. 

Kaito looked around once... at his medabot, at Skyelder, at Sonicstag, at Makoru... and at the contingent of Select Corp. agents and medabots that surrounded him and his friends. 

The young medafighter turned, looked up at Katoko as he returned his impassive stare, and nodded. "It's a deal." 

The lieutenant's grin only widened as he nodded in return. "So be it." He turned to the silver-plated KWG-type medabot standing next to him. "Silverthorn, it's go time." 

Silverthorn merely gave a small grunt of affirmation and strode forward towards the center of the clearing, awaiting the opposition to make its own signature of readiness. 

Kaito turned to Helixbeetle. "Are you ready, Helixbeetle? I just want you to keep in mind that this fight isn't about honor or reps, it's about..." 

Helixbeetle nodded as he finished Kaito's sentence. "I know, I know. It's... it's about friends. Friends that are counting on us." Kaito's KBT-type medabot turned, walked up to Silverthorn, and then silently signaled his own readiness with a nod. 

A Select Corp. agent walked out of the mass of Katoko's men and then suddenly popped his helmet off, revealing once more the face of... 

Mr. Referee!! 

Raising his armor-plated left arm, the WRC moderator signaled the preliminaries of the match. "Then it's agreed! I hereby declare this to be a conditional robattle! The winner will hereby claim whatever actions and privileges agreed upon beforehand!! Medafighters ready!?" 

"Anytime that Kaito's ready, I'm ready," Katoko answered with a smile. 

Kaito gave a thumbs-up to Helixbeetle as he made his reply. "Bring it on!!" 

Mr. Referee made a slicing downward motion with his armored left hand, signaling the beginning of the match. "MEDABOTS, ROOOOBATTLE!!!"   


=====   


The next moment abruptly brought a clanging, jarring noise to the ears of both opponents. Both of Silverthorn's triple-pronged blades had clashed and then locked with the armored bulk of Helixbeetle's upraised left arm as Kaito's KBT-type medabot barely managed to parry the fearsome blow. After a moment's stalemate, the two medabots violently disengaged, as both were sent skidding backwards by the force of their mutual impact.   


**_It's 8AM_**   


Katoko nodded as he lightly applauded in approval. "Not bad, kid; not bad at all. Very few opponents that I've faced have been able to block Silverthorn's Tridentsword, let alone both of them at once. But thick armor isn't going to save your medabot's hide... Silverthorn, skywards!"   


**_Everything's cool_**   


Kaito looked up in bewilderment. "Skywards-?" 

Silverthorn, without warning, leapt straight upwards into the treetops without a sound, as Helixbeetle, being the less agile, remained standing on the ground and looked upwards in puzzlement as the sound of snapping branches reached the ears and auditory receptors of everyone on the ground.   


**_The engine's runnin' smooth_**   


Katoko smirked, then softly spoke into his transmitter. "Silverthorn, use the Spikesurge."   


**_At least until you see that bully step through that classroom door...!!_**   


Helixbeetle suddenly dove for cover as a hail of energized bolts bristling with high-voltage electricity rained down onto the field of battle. 

Makoru yelled a desperate warning to Kaito. "Kaito! Look out! That's the same move that Silverthorn used to paralyze Skyelder! It's some sort of EMP shockbolt!" 

Kaito nodded as he grimly observed the battle in front of him. Several craters had been left behind in the dust, the only traces of the fiery rain that Silverthorn had thrown at Helixbeetle's position.   


**_Down and dirty,_**   
**_It ain't pretty!!_**   


Kaito's KBT-type shook one of his armored fists in Silverthorn's direction. "Damnit!! Stop being such a coward and-YLAAAH!!" Helixbeetle's last statement was abruptly cut short as one of Silverthorn's three-pronged blades sliced through the air where Helixbeetle's head had been a moment before.   


**_Scumbags and buttheads just take up your time...!!_**   
**_(Screw 'em!)_**   


As Silverthorn jumped down from the branches of a nearby tree, Katoko grinned. "Who's being the coward, Helixbeetle?"   


**_Nothing's goin' your way!_**   
**_(Detour!)_**   


Kaito slapped his forehead in exasperation. "Helixbeetle! We'll never win like this! Fire back! Don't let him intimidate you!"   


**_The locker's jammed!_**   
**_(Get me the torch!)_**   


Helixbeetle responded to Kaito's command with a volley of energy bolts from his Tetracannon, which Silverthorn contemptuously dodged. "I don't think this is working Kai-GAAAUGH!!" 

The KBT-type medabot had unwisely chosen to take his focus off of Silverthorn and look back at his medafighter for some reason or other, as Silverthorn decided at that exact moment to launch an EMP bolt squarely into Helixbeetle's armored torso.   


**_And your attendance record's just been slammed!!_**   
**_(You're busted nooooow...!)_**   


Helixbeetle gave a staggered cry and fell to his knees as sharp, raw currents of electricity continued to spark and course through his joints and conduits, scrambling his actuators and gyros.   


**_Down and dirty,_**   
**_Knocked down silly!!_**   


**_All you want to do is cry and squirm on your knees!_**   
**_(In your dreams!!)_**   


Kaito looked at his medawatch in some frustration as his meters began to relay the effects of the immobilizing blast, which was not only paralyzing Helixbeetle, but dealing out damage as well. "Helixbeetle! Get up!! GET UP!!" Kaito urged in desperation.   


**_Get up_**   
**_(Get down!)_**   


Lt. Katoko merely smiled in that same, damnably peculiar way of his as he gave another command through his transmitter. "Silverthorn, A-type maneuver!!"   


**_Don't just sit there_**   
**_(Lyin' around...!)_**   


The KWG-type medabot somersaulted once and lunged forward, slashing and carving into the paralyzed Helixbeetle with a devastating combination attack from his two Tridentswords, sending Helixbeetle flying back as a searing pain shot through his entire body.   


**_Stand up and be who you are_**   
**_(A devil's advocate!!)_**   


"GYAAHH!!!" The KBT-type medabot gave an agonized yell of pain and landed with a jarring 'clang' as he was thrown backwards from the KWG-type's melee assault and sent sprawling into the dust. The next moment, Silverthorn squarely landed on Helixbeetle's domed helmet, pinning the KBT-type to the ground before he could even make another move as he stabbed one of his three-pronged blades squarely into Helixbeetle's chest.   


**_Or be a nobody....!!!_**   
**_(It's not you that we're tryin' to educate!!)_**   


Every single part of Helixbeetle's body had been thoroughly slashed, his torso having been nearly cut in two by the sheer power of SIlverthorn's blades.   


**_Down and dirty,_**   
**_It's all crazy!!_**   


"NO!!! HELIXBEETLE!!!!" Kaito watched in horror as the LCD on his medawatch threw the inevitable into his face:   


**_Screaming out to the wooooorld!!!_**   
**_(No one's gonna hear you!)_**   


MEDAL ACTIVE: HELIXBEETLE ONLINE 

HEAD: HUNTER-RADAR: 5% - STATUS: CRITICAL   
R-ARM: TETRACANNON: 0% - STATUS: FUNCTION CEASED   
L-ARM: RAILGUN: 0% - STATUS: FUNCTION CEASED   
LEGS: WARPSEEKER: 5% - STATUS: CRITICAL 

WARNING: SYSTEM SHUTDOWN IMMINENT   


**_Let it out!_**   
**_(No one will hear you anywaaaaaay!!)_**   


The lieutenant looked up at Kaito as he gave another smug grin. "Face it, kid. Your KBT-type's a weakling. The only thing that'll save your hide now is a miracle-"   


**_Yell and shout!_**   
**_(Yeah, just let it out)_**   


**_Don't let those fools put the blame on you!!_**   
**_(Who needs the responsibility anyway)_**   


"Then call it a MIRACLE!!" A brilliant, blinding green light suddenly started to glow and leak from every hole, every open joint in Helixbeetle's armor, sending Silverthorn stumbling off his perch on Helixbeetle's head, as the KBT-type medabot painfully got to his feet and turned to Katoko with an eerie glow in his eyes as he spoke in a hard, angry tone. "You know what I really, really hate? Stupid punks like you that think there are such things as weak medabots." Helixbeetle's voice abruptly grew softer, and then rose to a rising crescendo as he concluded his two cents' worth. "Well, let me give you a twopenny's worth of free advice. There are no such things... AS WEAK MEDABOTS!!!!"   


**_Down and dirty,_**   
**_Feeling scummy!!_**

**_Feeling pity_**

**_Feeling guilty_**

**_Feeling crappy_**   
**_(Unhappy!!)_**   


**_Nothing's goin' your waaaaaay!!!_**   
**_(Detour!)_**   


**_Stand up_**   
**_(Sit down!)_**   


Lt. Katoko's face paled briefly as he realized what was happening. "The Medaforce..."   


**_Make a difference_**   
**_(Or make none, same thing)_**   


**_Be great_**   
**_(A lotta dough)_**   


**_No show_**   
**_(No gooooooo!!!)_**   


Then there was a massive explosion as Helixbeetle suddenly unleashed the pent-up energy into the clearing, sending a shockwave that sent the spectators, human and medabot alike, flying in random directions as the explosion continued to throw medaforce energy outwards like a child giving off a temper tantrum.   


**_Down and dirty,_**   
**_Feeling damnably_**

**_Unhappy!!_**   


**_Down and dirty,_**   
**_That voice's killin' me!_**   
**_(See things your way)_**   


**_It's my way_**   
**_(It's my way or your freakin' down and dirty waaaaaaaaaaaay!!)_**   


=====   


Just as suddenly as it had started, it then stopped, as the explosion had quickly spent itself simply due to its innate violence. 

"Helixbeetle!!" Kaito was about to run towards the location where he'd last seen Helixbeetle when the sight standing before him took not only _his_ breath away, but the breath of everyone else as well. 

When Helixbeetle had unleashed the medaforce, his body had been already carved, filleted, sliced, diced, and cut in any other sort of conceivable style by the assault of Silverthorn's Tridentswords. But the Helixbeetle that was standing before them didn't even have a scratch on his body as opposed to Silverthorn, whose smoking body now lay in a crumpled, contorted jumble of parts nearby, with a charred Kuwagata medal lying next to it. 

Kaito stared at his medawatch, which was now relaying to him several updated statistics that made him start back in surprise despite the fact that he'd seen this thing occur before.   


MEDAL ACTIVE: HELIXBEETLE ONLINE 

HEAD: HUNTER-RADAR: 100% - STATUS: NORMAL   
R-ARM: TETRACANNON: 100% - STATUS: NORMAL   
L-ARM: RAILGUN: 100% - STATUS: NORMAL   
LEGS: WARPSEEKER: 100% - STATUS: NORMAL   


Kaito looked at his medawatch, and then tapped the LCD face a few times... Just to make sure. 

Mr. Referee raised his armored hand into the air, signalling the end of the match. "Function ceased!! The winner... Is Shingawa Kaito!!" 

"IMPOSSIBLE!!!" Katoko screamed as he finally got his voice back. "THAT IDIOTIC KBT-TYPE SHOULD BE BATTERED!! BRUISED!! HE SHOULD BE THE ONE LYING IN A MANGLED HEAP!! HOW CAN HE-" 

"It is more than possible, it is probable," Helixbeetle answered coldly. "My late boss Shingawa Tensuo summed it up best. The power of the Medaforce is the power to turn an impossibility... into a reality." 

Katoko continued to rave as he tried to strenuously deny what he'd just seen. "BUT... BUT... BUT IT'S IMPOSSIBLE!! HOW CAN A WEIRD CRATE OF A MEDABOT LIKE YOU BE ABLE TO PULL OFF A HALF-MYTH MOVE LIKE THAT!!? I REFUSE TO BELIEVE IT!!" 

"Nevertheless," cut in Mr. Referee, "The winner has been declared to be Shingawa Kaito. The Medaforce is a legal move in any robattle. I now ask you 'politely' on behalf of the World Robattle Regulations Association that you graciously accept your defeat and let Kaito claim his earned prerogative, the freedom of both himself as well as his friends, as agreed beforehand. Ciao for now!" With that, Mr. Referee gave a piercing whistle as a Select Corp. squad car pulled up, hopped in, and rode away. 

"That... that can't be..." The lieutenant's hands were twitching and contracting like a pair of dying spiders as he spoke. Looking at the corroded, twisted body of Silverthorn, then at Kaito, he suddenly straightened up, walked over, silently picked up Silverthorn's body and his medal, and began walking away. 

Kaito and the others had been watching the entire scene with the quiet detachment of prison camp victims. Kaito's initial elation at his upset victory and the consequent freedom he'd won both for him and his friends had faded away as he watched a man, so used to having his pride in gleaming order, now walking away with as much dignity as he could salvage from his defeat. 

Kaito tentatively began to speak as the lieutenant continued to walk away. "Lieutenant, I..." 

"Save your words, kid. I let you win. No; slight correction. My _pride_ let you win." Turning around, Katoko then gestured to his men to leave as he continued. "Nevertheless, you deserve your victory, kid. But the next time we meet, 'I'will be the victor. And I will have won it fairly, just as much as you have won this one." 

With that, the lieutenant and his men turned away, and left the quintet of medafighters and medabots silently pondering on Katoko's words. 

Up above, the moon continued on its voyage across the ebony skies, unmindful of the battle that had just raged below.   


=====   


"NAVI, have you got a link yet?" Siden asked through his audio pick-up to the HEX Corp. server. 

The supercomputer system gave a small beep as it answered Siden's inquiry. "Negative. I have scanned several prominent areas that would be suitable for a long-range para-atmospheric transmission route, but nothing has appeared as of yet on my sensors. Shall I switch to active scan?" 

"No," replied Siden. "We're not taking any sort of risks with you. From what Kaito told me, Select Corp. nearly got a hook on your presence, which could have jeopardized your safety. Stay on passive systems, and wait for my next command orders." 

"Acknowledged." NAVI beeped once, then clicked off as Siden's connection to the HEX Corp. server was terminated. 

Siden sat back and sighed. 

"Something wrong, Siden?" Kasumi asked as he stepped through the door. 

"It's just that I'm finding it so difficult to get a lock on MACHINA's base... Stupid me. I was so freakin' relieved to get out of that dirthole that I didn't even think about getting an orientation of where the base was even located." 

"Doesn't Luminoustag know where it is? He's been there before, hasn't he?" Kasumi observed. 

Siden shook his head. "Unfortunately, Luminoustag doesn't know either. MACHINA's base is heavily concealed in a labyrinth of sewage systems, and the only way that Luminoustag even got there in order to receive assignments was by a specialized frequency that MACHINA had used as a homing beacon for Luminoustag to lock onto. When Luminoustag quit MACHINA's little circle, MACHINA's apparently disabled the homing frequency." 

Kasumi sighed in turn. "This is bad. Ikki's just had a talk with Dr. Aki, and he's calculated that Ragnarok's going to probably launch its ICBM payload within the next 72 hours." 

Siden nodded as he pondered the information. "Makes perfect sense. The moon reaches its closest point in its orbit within Earth's gravity at about this time every month. Anything else?" 

"Fubuki found some more information from her old 'contacts' in the city's red-light district. It's sort of sick..." Kasumi gulped for a moment, then continued. "A contingent of Select Corp. found a group of dead RubberRobos lying in a flood-control channel somewhere near the South-East sector. They were all killed by .26 revolver shots." 

"Wait a minute... A .26 caliber shell? That's the same kind ranged meda..." Siden's face paled. 

"...That ranged medabots use," Kasumi nodded as he finished Siden's sentence. 

Siden silently pondered this news as he then looked up. "Who could have possibly done this? The RubberRobos are stupid, but they aren't THAT stupid to get themselves killed like this... Do you think it could have been MACHINA, Kasumi?" 

The bespectacled teenager shrugged. "Who knows? Of course, I-" 

Kasumi's sentence was suddenly interrupted by a beep coming from the intercom. Siden quickly turned around in his chair as he activated his audio pick-up. "Yes?" 

Mizore's voice came on over the other end of the line, sounding somewhat unnerved. "Siden, Kaito just called me over the IMD. Apparently, he was monitoring one of the scan grids when the HEX Corp. NAVI system detected a secondary high-end homing frequency. When NAVI traced the frequency, all that it returned was a single output line. It sounds sort of... weird." 

"What sort of message was it?" asked Kasumi. 

Mizore was silent for a moment before he replied. "The HEX Corp. NAVI server said... 'SISTER'."   
  
  


**To Be Continued...**


	12. Chapter 12: Cursed Nirvana

**STANDARD DISCLAIMER: ** I do not own Medabots, Medarot, nor anything related to the trademark. All rights, permissions, official characters, and concepts are properties of Imagineer Co. and Natsume.   


**Medabots: Open Ring**   
  


**Chapter XII : Cursed Nirvana**

=====   
  
  


_"Knowledge and enlightenment are curious assets. They often are as malevolent as they are benevolent."_   
**_- Understatements_**

  
  
  
  
  
  
  


=====   


Siden did a double take. "Wait a minute... Did you say, 'SISTER'?" 

"That's what I'm telling you," Mizore answered. "The NAVI s-" 

Siden abruptly interrupted Mizore's sentence as he finished pondering the information. "That's enough, Mizore. Tell everyone over the IMD that we've found MACHINA's base... And another NAVI."   


=====   


The sewer main stretched down underneath the length of the city for what seemed like an eternity. Everyone, including Ikki, Erika, the Screws, Koji, Karin, Rintaro, and all of their medabots had all convened at Siden's house soon after Mizore had sent out the message that he'd received from Kaito. 

"Okay, tell me once again why we're down here tramping through peoples' feces." As far as the Screws were concerned, Samantha was grumbling, Spyke was whining, and Sloan was giving the silent treatment. Everyone else was too busy concentrating on finding the objective of their search to notice. 

Kaito regarded the slime that caked his shoes with a slight hint of amusement as the group continued to walk down the access path in the sewage main. "I still find it hard to convince myself with the fact that someone could manage to install a supercomputer in the sewers..." 

"The NAVI server that resides here in the sewers was never installed... it was illegally uploaded," Siden corrected as he and Luminoustag led the way. "From what I remember while I was rooting through the old Robattle-Research archives, there was only one NAVI server officially created for data storage use, and that was on CLUSTER-001. The other NAVI systems that are in existence today, including the HEX Corp. NAVI, are illegal bootlegs; which were uploaded, copied and re-programmed for counter-cross blocking in order to hack into the actual NAVI server." 

"But then why is it that this 'second-hand' NAVI server left the message 'SISTER'?" asked Erika. 

"Because of two things," replied Siden. "First of all, the the NAVI developers had been planning to make several other NAVI computers in an international Wide-Area-Network and therefore incorporated this into the original NAVI's logistics in order to anticipate this need. Second, the NAVI servers had been created with the same methods as that of Medabot AI technology, allowing them to carry basic personality traits. It therefore isn't surprising that the NAVI servers have some sense of 'family ties'." 

Luminoustag suddenly halted as he regarded an intersecting sewer main nearby. "Siden, the frequency seems to have strengthened in amplitude... I would say that we're getting close." 

Siden nodded as he turned to everyone else in the group. "All right, guys, spread out from this area and look for anything that seems out of place... Loose rocks, bricks, paneling, or anything else that looks odd." 

Ikki turned to Erika for a moment as everyone began to systematically examine every section of the sewer main in which they were in. "Erika..." 

"Yeah?" 

"About yesterday, I..." 

Koji's voice abruptly interrupted Ikki's remark. "Hey, guys! I think I found something!" 

Everybody immediately began to cluster around where Koji was standing as Ikki slapped his forehead in exasperation. "I'll have to get back to you later, Erika..."   


=====   


The immense passageway that Koji had discovered spiraled and corkscrewed around through the earth, causing a few of the group to lose their orientation as Luminoustag continued to track the homing frequency that was still clearly tingling in his sensors. 

"Hey, Luminoustag, how much farther?" Sloan muttered as he massaged one of his legs. "I don't think my legs can take much more of this hiking around." 

Luminoustag turned his head slightly as he answered the heavyset boy's question. "About a few hundred more meters. It shouldn't take much longer, since I recognize this section of tunnel." 

After a few more minutes of trudging through the grime, the group was halted in their tracks as a huge, steel-plated door presented itself to the group of schoolkids. Helixbeetle regarded the hinges of the door with a bit of dubiousness. 

"Geez... The door seems to have been welded shut." 

Fubuki shook her head as she tried the bolt that kept the door locked. "I don't think so... The seam's been welded shut, but it's almost as if... something had melted part of the door from the inside..." 

Siden turned to Kasumi. "I think the Medaforce might be welcome in this case... Kasumi, care to let Granbeetle do the honors?" 

Kasumi nodded as he pressed a button on his medawatch. "Not a problem... Transport Granbeetle!" 

There was a brief flash as the KBT-type medabot suddenly appeared in the tunnel next to Kasumi. Granbeetle shook his head for a moment. "Man... I've GOT to get adjusted to the re-entry... So, Kasumi? What gives?" 

Kasumi merely pointed to the steel-plated door. 

Granbeetle looked at the door for a moment. "Huh? You want me to knock another door down!? No way, buddy! You remember the week before! Remember, back when your little sister locked us both out of the house!? It got both of us grounded for three weeks!" 

Kasumi tried to calm down his exasperated KBT-type medabot down with a slight wave of his wrist. "Don't worry, Granbeetle... It won't get you grounded this time. I mean it." 

Granbeetle sighed as he stepped closer to the door. "Fine, fine... I'll do it. Okay, everyone, clear the area... " 

KA-BWOOOOOOOM!!! 

There was an ear-shattering explosion as a glowing, three-pronged bolt of medaforce energy pierced the thick steel, rending the hinges and bolt apart with the force of an angered Titan. The dust soon cleared away to reveal the wreckage of the door lying in pieces on the grimy floor, and a gaping hole where the door had once stood. 

What lay on the other side made everyone stand in silent horror.   


=====   


The charred bodies of MACHINA's lackeys littered the ground of the chamber, scattered in fragmented pieces. The sickly-sweet smell of barbecued flesh still lingered in the hallway, while pick-pocks of burnt craters in the walls marked where missiles had flown to on their lethal trajectory. 

Siden gulped for a moment, then motioned to the others to continue walking. 

Kaito regarded the bodies intermittently littering the floor with some distaste, as he kicked aside a severed hand. "What happened here? At the very least, I was expecting some guards... not a mausoleum. Was this Ragnarok's work?" 

Siden shrugged as he picked his way between a pair of legs and an arm. "If it was, I wouldn't be surprised... While we were analyzing the Ragnarok schematics, we noticed something odd about the medals' synchronization module. The linking pattern was arranged in such a weak matrix network that the synchronization probably broke out of link, causing Ragnarok's central hybrid AI to behave irrationally..." The hallway suddenly made an abrupt turn, opening out into a huge chamber that Siden vaguely recognized. "Hey, Luminoustag, wasn't this the place where I was being incarcerated?" 

Luminoustag nodded. "Indeed... Despite the bad shape this chamber is in, it definitely appears to be." 

The blue KWG-type wasn't exaggerating in his estimation of the room's condition. The metal decking and platforms that had been snaking their way along the chamber walls had been toppled, leaving their wrecked remains twisted and mangled on the stone floor, while various computer panels and control consoles lay shattered and silent among the various niches in the chamber itself, with only a few hologram projectors and programming consoles still intact. 

Siden turned to the other members of the group. "Okay, everyone, spread out and look for anything of interest... There might be something here that could give us some useful information about Ragnarok..." 

A groan suddenly interrupted Siden's remark. Siden turned around and then saw a hand sticking out of the wreckage... which was also moving. 

"Guys, get that platform off of him!" 

Ikki and the other boys began wrenching away at the decking, then groaned simultaneously as the titanium planking proved too heavy for human hands to move. Kasumi turned to Siden. "We'll never get it off this way..." 

Siden turned to Luminoustag. "I think that shiny little sword of yours might do the trick... Care to oblige?" 

The blue KWG-type merely nodded, and with a few well-aimed slices, cut the planking apart as if it were nothing more than swiss cheese. 

Everyone began to back away in some surprise as they saw the person that had been lying underneath the wreckage. The unfortunal fellow's body had been literally scorched, and Siden saw with some grim certainty that the pitiful, pathetic soul that now lay before them had mortal burns... probably from Ragnarok. 

The hooded, lacerated face of MACHINA, still wearing that ubiquitous mask, wanly stared up at the group of schoolkids and medabots with all the tired resignation of a beaten prisoner-of-war. After a few moments, a weak voice, laced with a tinge of irony, spoke into the shadows. 

"So... it appears that children have come to observe me in the hour of my greatest failure."   


=====   


MACHINA coughed violently as Karin handed him another cup of water. 

Siden bent down as he stared at MACHINA's face. "What happened, MACHINA? Or are you still too beaten to talk?" 

MACHINA looked up, and replied in a hoarse, broken voice. "No... I... I will talk. It is the least I can do... to make amends." 

"How can we trust you, you screwball? For all we know, you could be just trying to hatch another stupid scheme in that nutty little brain of yours!" yelled Hiyori. 

MACHINA tiredly shook his head. "Do you really think a dying man would try to play tricks? Nonetheless..." His voice began to drift off as he closed his eyes, his chest heaving slowly as he took several labored breaths of air before continuing. "I have been... insane. Insane for a long, long time. The doctors told me that the part of my brain that controlled logic had been seized by some sort of catalepsy, some disease, rendering it fit for slow erosion... Although I have desperately tried to keep a hold on my mind, it appears... that I had lost." 

"What were you doing with the RubberRobos?" Makoru asked. 

MACHINA's voice wheezed for a moment as he answered. "They... I had intended to use them as pawns in my delusioned game of conquest..." 

"Were you the one that killed those RubberRobos in that alley?" Siden asked. 

"Someone killed RubberRobos?" Makoru asked. 

Siden nodded. "Several... including one that they identified through her alias as "Gillgirl"... All of them had been killed by .26 revolver rounds. 

Makoru shrugged. "She got what she deserved..." 

MACHINA slowly shook his head. "No... I did not kill them... Pathetic though they were, I had intended to keep them... not eliminate them... Regardless of what evils I have worked, that event was not my doing..." 

"Do you know who did it then?" Kasumi asked. 

"No..." 

"What about Ragnarok?" Kasumi inquired slowly. 

"R-ragnarok? Merely a grandiose vision of a dream turned into the darkest nightmare. I had conceived Ragnarok in my mind to be the greatest medabot... of all time. But due to my fits of insanity, my dreams were slowly corrupted and twisted into a dark parody of what they would have been. I understand... that I have unleashed a monstrosity upon the world, one that should never have seen the light of da-" 

MACHINA began to cough violently, as his chest violently spasmed. After a few more moments of violent coughing and retching, he slowly recovered for the moment and continued. "When we activated Ragnarok, things had already started to go wrong... But when it awoke, I had never conceived that it would come to this. Ragnarok broke free of its mental shackles, and turned on us, destroying everyone and everything in sight. However, at the very least, my injuries have actually cleared my mind, and I can think and feel clearly once again. Thus, I ask- No, I_ beg_ you to stop what my works have culminated in. You may doubt my intentions, but I swear on everything that I once held dear that what I intend is nothing but an honest effort in absolution..." 

"What must be done?" Luminoustag murmured. 

"Not much, my former pawn, but this... Ragnarok must be stopped at all costs. Even now, judging from what I remember concerning his design, he will be probably at this moment infecting and slowly merging with the CLUSTER-001 NAVI server... If that happens, the station will no longer be a place of pursuing knowledge, it will be a place... of glorifying destruction." 

"So how do we stop him?" Kaito asked. "Get a monkey wrench and threaten him?" 

MACHINA shook his head. "No. Unfortunately, I do not remember how to stop my creation... I am sorry, but you must figure that out for yourselves." The hooded man chuckled weakly as he continued. "It is strange... and yet, oddly humoring. An old friend of mine by the name of Tensuo once told me-" 

Kaito's eyes suddenly widened at this remark. "Wait a minute... You said Tensuo. What was his family name?" 

MACHINA turned to the young medafighter. "Shingawa. Shingawa Tensuo... Why do you ask? Do you know him?" 

"He's... He's my uncle." 

MACHINA's eyes widened slightly in turn, as he stared at Kaito more closely. After a moment's scrutiny, he nodded. "Yes... yes, Tensuo's face is reflected in you, somewhat... How is my old friend?" 

Kaito's face darkened for a moment as he answered. "He's been dead for several years." 

MACHINA's eyes reflected a silent regret as he received the news. "Regretful... As well as unfortunate. I will never have the opportunity to apologize to him." 

"Apologize? Why?" Erika asked. 

"Because of all the ways I slighted him," MACHINA answered quietly. "We had broken up over a disagreement regarding how medabots should be considered... We were such good friends too... One of the finest medabot engineers I ever met, and a powerful heart as well. While we were working together, he told me of his dreams of building the greatest medabot the world would ever see... It is a pity that his dreams never came to fruition." 

MACHINA's breath began to grow fainter, as the color in his face began to slowly drain away. "I feel that my body is starting to give, so let me finish what I have to say... All of you, you must work together to stop Ragnarok. If you should fail, then there is no telling what Ragnarok might do with the powers of the CLUSTER-001 station under his control." 

"Isn't there anything that you could tell us that might help? A weakness, perhaps?" Ikki asked. 

MACHINA's brow furrowed, and then he answered. "There is... No. I'm sorry, but my mind is already starting to fade. You will have to find the answers on your own." The hooded man took a brief gasp of air. "Please... Stop this... monstrosity at all costs. The legacy of my friend Tensuo and I were the seeds of a greater promise to come... Do not let our efforts be in vain. And, at the very least, if a man could repent, I repent! Of everything, I repent-!!" 

Suddenly, the broken form of MACHINA suddenly began to convulse, as the dimmed eyes suddenly rolled inwards into their sockets. The man's limbs began to thrash, as foam suddenly began leaking out the sides of the mask that the hooded figure wore. 

Spyke started to panic. "What's happening!?" 

"MACHINA's lungs are starting to fill with fluids from his body," Fubuki grimly explained. "In moments, his body will have literally drowned itself to death." 

With a final, desperate gasp for air, MACHINA convulsed again in one final spasm, and then all was quiet. The limbs went slack. And where there had been a man that once possessed the name Moyotema Kizure, there was now an empty, shattered husk. 

Siden slowly stood up, grabbed a tarpaulin cover that was lying nearby, and covered the lifeless body. After stepping away and pondering MACHINA's passing for a moment, the brown-haired teenager spoke briefly. 

"Despite all that he did to me, and to others whom he must have come in contact with, I can't help but feel sorry for him." 

The others silently bowed their heads in agreement... For a man whose attempt at grandiose visions had become nothing more than a pitiable, twisted nightmare.   


=====   


The chamber echoed dully as the moment of silence that the children paid to MACHINA's existence ended. Samantha turned to Ikki. "So what next? Ragnarok's officially on the lam, the world's threatened with total annihilation, and all we've got to work with are a few pieces out of a jigsaw puzzle." 

"One thing is for sure," Makoru muttered. "If Ragnarok is indeed on CLUSTER-001, and is attempting to take it over, then there's no telling what could happen... If he takes control of the medabot mass-production sectors..." 

"...Then Earth will literally be plunged into a war... A war of apocalyptic proportions," Siden finished. 

_"I will not let that happen..."_

Siden and the others suddenly spun in alarm, as an unfamiliar voice suddenly boomed throughout the chamber. It was a hollow, deep voice, like that of an ancient demigod. 

Everyone then noticed that one of the holographic projectors, which had been still left intact from Ragnarok's maddened rage, had begun to glow. Siden and Kasumi cautiously approached the projector. 

Abruptly, from within the projector's depths, sprang forth an image... an image of a medabot, trimmed with gleaming gold and teal armor, and wings that seemed to be composed of energy itself. A gleaming sword shone in the medabot's left hand, while a huge tower shield, adorned with an eye, was strapped to the arm on its right. The voice spoke again, as Siden and the others noticed that the medabot's face was concealed underneath a hood. The image, after a brief pause, began to speak in the same voice that had startled everyone. 

_"I cannot maintain this form of communication for long, so listen closely..."_

"Form? What do you mean?" Kaito asked. 

_"This is merely a phantom, a product... a product of my mind,"_ the image replied. _"In a past life, I was Andurial, the medabot archangel. Now, my medal resides inside a demon, a product of nightmares from beyond the grave, which its creator called Ragnarok."_

"Wait a minute... So are you part of Ragnarok itself?" Mizore asked. 

The image of Andurial nodded vehemently as it continued. "_Yes... Even at this very moment, while Ragnarok's other medal seeks to gain control of the CLUSTER-001 NAVI server, I am lodged in the other half of its mind. I am fighting with all I am capable of in order to contain this monster, but it is clear that my other half is slowly gaining the upper hand."_ Here, Andurial's voice became faster, and more desperate. "_You must reach CLUSTER-001 before Ragnarok's darker half is fully unleashed! I can feel it slipping its geas which I have attempted to place. You **must **hurry!!"_

"But how do we stop this thing?" Kasumi asked. 

_"By re-taking control of the NAVI computer... At the very least, it will slow down the Ragnarok system..."_

"So, what will happen if we destroy Ragnarok?" Goutetsu asked. 

_"Ragnarok will cease to exist... Although, regretfully, if Ragnarok manages to gain control of NAVI before you can reach him, then it will destroy the NAVI system as well..." _Andurial's voice and image started to grow fainter as he continued. _"I can feel the other half slowly gaining its control over my system... I cannot speak much longer. Please, hurry-!!"_

With a flicker, the hologram winked out, as the room was suddenly plunged into darkness. Samantha gave a grunt of annoyance as she remarked on the abrupt occurrence. 

"Well... Does anyone have a flashlight?"   


=====   


A multitude of bumps, curses and scuffed shins later, the group stumbled out of the sewer grate... and into an utter horror. Siden was stepping through grating when he was suddenly knocked off his feet and sent sprawling to the asphalt by the force of a passing armored gunship. 

"What gives!?" 

As Siden slowly got back onto his feet, he noticed that the buildings around him had been set aflame, with Select Corp. medabots and agents rushing one way and another, yelling commands and status reports. The sky seemed to be literally ablaze with pyrotechnic conflagration, as screams, yells, and the sounds of chaos reached the ears of all who were present. 

The group of schoolkids stared in shock and horror as a horde of black, fiendish-looking medabots began descending from the sky to join those already on the ground. 

Luminoustag watched the chaos around him and murmured a soliloquy... a silent, sorrowful remark that whispered into the darkness. 

"And so it comes to pass. The War of the Gods... has come. The Open Ring... Has now come full circle."   
  
  


**To Be Continued...**


	13. Chapter 13: The Infernal Gate

STANDARD DISCLAIMER: I do not own Medabots, Medarot, nor anything related to the trademark. All rights, permissions, official characters, and concepts are properties of Imagineer Co. and Natsume.   


**Medabots: Open Ring**   
  


**Chapter XIII : The Infernal Gate**

=====   
  
  


_"Hell is not something that you see when you die... It is something that can be forced upon you while you are still living."_   
_- **Fifth Maxim**_

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


=====   


_Visions..._

_Many visions._

_One image._

_Kaito. Shingawa Kaito._

_The young boy floats within the ether, slowly rocking back and forth like the cruel parody of some constant pendulum, as he ponders the visions before him. No... no visions. Just the darkness._

_A voice, quiet and yet tingling like shifted china, speaks into the void._

_"So... what is inside of you?"_

_Kaito looks about in bewilderment. "Wh-who are you?"_

_"Something inside... something outside. I ask you again. What is inside of you?"_

_"I... I don't know."_

_The voice gives a small, ironic laugh as it continues. "Is it something warm, soft, and beating? Or is it cold, hard, metallic... Much like the medals that you have seen and handled so often?"_

_"I don't understand..."_

_"Let me ask you in an easier light. What is your focus? Or, to be more precise, your foci?"_

_"I... I'm searching, that I know."_

_"Searching for what?"_

_"Searching for a killer."_

_The voice seems to give a contemptuous snort as it answers back. "What sort of killer?"_

_"The killer of my parents."_

_"Is that all you are thinking of?"_

_Images float through the darkness, congealing and solidifying into silent ideas... silent images._

_Nitane._

_Tarou._

_Helixbeetle._

_Makoru._

_And many others..._

_Kaito shakes his head. "No," he mutters. "That's not all that I'm thinking about."_

_The voice seems to pause in a moment of hesitation, then reluctantly presses forward. "What do you want to do with your life? Being a hunter of vengeance is an inconstant and also temporary goal, young one. What do you want... to be?"_

_"I... I don't know."_

_The voice gives a pained sigh, then replies, drifting away as if the source of the disembodied voice was moving farther and farther away. "We will speak more on this later. Think carefully, son of Shingawa. Your priorities are skewed awry..."_

_And with that, the images disappear, leaving the young medafighter alone once again._   


=====   


Light floods through the room. Kaito awakens. 

The young medafighter groaned as he shook his head, trying to recollect his thoughts that had been disrupted by the ethereal dream that had drifted through his mind a moment before... before finding himself looking into two very green eyes. 

"Wha-? Makoru?!" Kaito fully awoke in a flash as he stood up straight as a pin. 

The ex-RubberRobo chuckled a bit as she slowly backed away from the startled teen. "You're cute when you get ruffled, you know that?" 

Kaito grumbled as he wiggled out of the cot he was lying on. "By the way, what happened? Why are we back at HEX Cor- Oh, now I remember..." 

The young medafighter's face skewed somewhat as he remembered what had happened.   


_Smoke..._

_Choking fires, clouds of ash blanketing..._

_And then, right before the gates of HEX Corp, a blinding flash of light..._   


Makoru frowned as she recollected what had happened. "Everything was going well for our getaway right until we reached the HEX Corp. front gate... Just what was that thing? Did you see anything different?" 

Kaito shook his head. "No. That's about as far as I remember myself. Can you make anything out of it?" 

Makoru was about to reply when a very familiar head sporting blue hair and glasses suddenly poked through the doorway. 

"Ah, I see that you two are awake," Kasumi remarked as he nodded. "Time to get moving. Siden's been on the phone with Dr. Aki. Apparently, the invasion's stopped. Perfect time for us to set up a strategy." 

"It's about time," Kaito replied as he wiggled off of his cot and his feet into his shoes.   


=====   


"So as you can see," Kasumi finished as he pointed to the board, "the primary security control consoles are located here, here, and... here. A major NAVI access control station is located here, at the base of this fractal arrangement. Dr. Aki's been doing some analysis of these medabots that started the attack yesterday, and the best guess he can give is that they're Demon-types, or DEM-types, for short. High-density depleted uranium armor plating, a pair of recoilless shell launchers, and a pair of melee weapons, ranging from blunt cudgel-types to slashing claws. There's two known variants, according to surviving Select Corp. officers, one relying on flying thrusters, and the other being a bi-pedal ground unit." 

Koji absently rubbed his chin as he stared at the diagram. "So, let me get this straight... We get an abandoned transit shuttle, sneak over to a docking port, wiggle our way through the maintenance access port, and then slowly re-take control of the station by means of the security grid?" 

Siden nodded. "Something like that. However, as I've said before, the operation isn't going to be a cakewalk. Ragnarok, by itself, is no small cheese... Add to that some several hundred medabots that obey him, plus a CLUSTER-001 security system on the fritz, and you've got yourself a floating robattle free-for-all hell in space." 

"Is there anything that might make our attempt somewhat easier?" Karin asked as Neutranurse stood close by. 

"I'm not quite sure... Wait a minute. If we can somehow use the HEX Corp. NAVI server and cross-link it into the main CLUSTER-001 network, we might be able to scramble Ragnarok's operation sequences long enough to gain a useful advantage... such as some more time for ourselves. Kaito, do you have any objections to using NAVI for that purpose?" 

Kaito shrugged. "If it could help, I'm perfectly willing... But how are we going to sneak past CLUSTER-001's sensor system?" 

"By using a jamming code, courtesy of Ikki's PGM-type medabot Discdrive," Erika answered. "By sending out this byline, we'll be able to get past the sensor system long enough for us to establish a foothold and get to work on disabling Ragnarok." 

"Well, then, what are we waiting for?" Makoru asked. "We've got ourselves a world to save!! Let's go!" 

The phone had chosen at that moment to ring with a rather jarring clang, as Ashton hurried over to pick up the receiver. "Hello? Murasame residence..." 

The words that Ashton then heard over the line made the current in his circuits freeze.   


=====   


Two yellow eyes float in the darkness... Silent, and brooding. A rasping, hoarse voice, made rough by a multitude of hopeless prayers and countless curses, finally broke the silence after a long moment. Ragnarok. 

"Resistance is to be expected... but it is of no use. The pathetic fleshbags will soon learn their place." 

Another voice, deep but desperate, resounds throughout the chamber. _"You cannot do this!! Think, Eldaris! Are you mad!!? Doing this will upset the Gate's balance-"_

The image of a gold-and-teal armored medabot, with wings that seemed to gleam as if they were made of the stuff of dreams, slowly floated into the void of Ragnarok's mind. 

Another image, that of a black-armored medabot, battered beyond all hope of restoration, also appears into the void. 

"Enough platitudes, angelic fool. Though you may have been the Gate's guardian, Andurial, you are now reduced to nothing more than a mere appendage. An extension of my very will." 

The Archangel-type medabot's voice grows weaker, and fainter, as it continues to echo through the mind of the other named Eldaris. _ "I cannot warn you for much longer, Eldaris... This purpose was never meant to be realized. Our race was not meant to see a blasphemy of this sort... If you continue on this path, you will utterly shatter the legacy that my creator and I strove to protect-"_

Eldaris's voice angrily booms through Andurial's protests, shattering the once-powerful voice of the Archangel medabot. "To Perdition with your creator, and your legacy! There is only one goal in my mind now, and that is to exact my revenge upon this universe... this accursed place that became the destruction of our people. You are a soft-hearted weakling, Andurial... You are only another obstacle in my quest for the Gate itself." 

Andurial's voice gives a sigh, both pained and melancholy. _"My time is up, Eldaris. Though we may have been once good friends, know this... If I ever awaken again, sufficiently enough to raise up arms against you, then I will fight to the last of my emerald core to rid the universe of a soul tortured as yourself."_

"An empty threat. You will never see the Gate's light again, _old friend_." 

There is no response. 

The darkness floods through, and the eyes suddenly refocus into the reality of time. "I am sorry, Andurial, but... to perdition with kindness. There is only justice. Ragnarok must come." 

And with that, the eyes turn to watch the stars, ever unmindful of the struggle that was occuring within.   


=====   


"Uhm, sir... Sarge, could you look at this for a moment?" 

The Select Corp. officer on the deck sighed as he heard the adjutant call for his attention. Trudging slowly over to where the adjutant was sitting, the sergeant replied to the adjutant's request in a bored tone. "Yes, what is it?" 

The adjutant hesitantly turned to the terminal in front of him as he pointed to a blip that was registering on and off on his radar screen. "I'm picking up a high-end thermal surge point descending on Sectors 32 and 54-Beta... Appears to be something... huge." 

_That_ got the officer's attention. "Is the descent in freefall?" 

The adjutant shook his head. "No... the object appears to be utilizing some sort of retro-rocket system," he muttered as he pointed to several large red blips that seemed to be flaring outwards from the target. "See there? We've got... one, two, three... four flares simultaneously working over an Omega-C pattern." 

"Try and get me a visual." 

"Yes sir." After a few hurried keystrokes, the adjutant pointed to a blurred, bulging object that appeared on the screen. "Look, there it is!" 

The Select Corp. officer stared at the object on the monitor. "What the hell...!?" Straightening up, he turned to a nearby communications technician and gesticulated to him wildly. "Get me HQ!! Tell them that we've got a major bogey descending on 32 and 54, stat!!" 

The communications officer nodded as he hurried typed in a few commands, and then turned back to the sergeant with a flustered look as he pressed the receiver to the 'open' state. "Sir, HQ is awaiting your statement on Line 1." 

The sergeant dashed over and picked up the receiver. "HQ, this is Surveillance Deck-39... Beta Control has detected a large object in a controlled descent towards the 32nd and 54th sectors... Omega-C pattern retroaction... And notify Medabot Corp. as well. We've got a major problem here!!" 

The Select Corp. officer slammed the receiver down as he continued to look nervously at the realtime footage, showing the flaming profile of CLUSTER-001 as it continued to descend effortlessly to the earth below.   


=====   


Outside, the screams of the masses grew only louder, as the previous threat of a descending horde of demonic-looking medabots was replaced with that of the red-hot form of a descending space station, seeming to literally drill through the atmosphere itself as it continued on its earthwards odyssey. In a couple of moments, what still remained of the charred space station plunged the last few hundred meters into the concrete jungle with the force of an enraged deity. 

There was a jarring tremor as the space station's enormous bulk continued to drive forwards into the earth, breaking apart nearby buildings with the sheer force of its mass and weight. Then, with a final shudder, the station ground to a halt, and there it rested as it continued to smoke and smoulder from the intense friction it had generated while on its inbound descent. 

Bystanders and people who were still alive started to scream and panic, as people began searching for loved ones and friends, or to simply put as much distance between themselves and the source of the disaster. 

Strangely enough in the face of certain chaos, two figures stolidly stood, watching the display as if it were little more than a fireworks show put on for their own amusement. 

"So, Silverthorn... it seems as if the very source of our woes has decided to put in a guest appearance... Shall we pay our respects?" 

The KWG-type merely nodded. 

The two figures silently strode off in the direction of the descending space station, while the general flow of the panicked mob continued to stream in the opposite direction... Much like two insects, swirling forwards against the current.   


=====   


"WHAT!?" Siden's chest seemed to literally explode as the brown-haired medafighter heard the news from Ashton. 

The GWF-type medabot merely shrugged as he repeated the information he'd received over the phone. "CLUSTER-001's landed... and straight in the middle of the primary city infrastructure, like a toothpick in a martini olive. Select Corp. estimates casualties in the hundreds, if not in the thousands..." 

Siden's hands clenched and unclenched as if they were spasming by their own volition. After a few moments, he turned to the others, who were hesitantly standing around nearby with expressions of fear and uncertainty which had resulted from the about-face events that had just occurred. Taking a deep breath, Siden then spoke. "We were all set to make a go for Ragnarok... and now, Ragnarok's come to us... almost as if the very gates of Hell decided to relocate to the mortal world." 

Turning to the street that twisted and wound its way below, Siden regarded the worn cement with a strange expression as he continued. "I don't know what's going to happen now... we've gone so far, and seen so much. Just what are we going to-" 

Siden's remark was suddenly interrupted by a thin, piping voice... Kasumi's voice. "Listen up, Siden... none of us know what's going to happen. We don't know what life, or our futures will bring us. Everything we've seen in the last few weeks has literally changed our outlook on both medabots, and the world that we live in... But I do know this, Siden. This _thing_ is about to destroy everything we've believed in... our friends, our lives, our futures. There isn't any doubt in my mind about what we have to do. Stopping Ragnarok." 

Everyone was silent as Kasumi finished his platitude. Then, without warning, everyone started to cheer. 

"Way to go Kasumi!!" 

"That's right!" 

Siden, however, merely smiled his thanks as the blue-haired, bespectacled teen's words of encouragement echoed in his ears. "Thank you... Kasumi." 

Kasumi nodded. "Let's go, guys! If Ragnarok wants to come to us, let 'im have it!!"   


=====   


"Has the fourth circle been completed, Corchek?" 

A darkened figure, silhouetted by an array of muted floorlights, stolidly sat back in his upholstered chair as another figure of shadows walked into the chamber. The personage that had entered quietly nodded before answering the seated figure's question. 

"The circle is complete, as predicted, Leader. MACHINA is dead, which is rather convenient, and our 'dealings' with the RubberRobos have been completed. Most of their leaders are dead, with their lackeys scattered to the four winds." 

The figure sitting in the chair nodded in satisfied approval before continuing. "And Ragnarok?" 

"That pathetic homunculus of a medabot has acted as predicted, playing right into my hands without even knowing it. The Gods' War will proceed as planned." The figure standing in the dim shadows seemed to regard the hidden arrays of lights that were playing about the carved walls of marble inside the chamber. 

The seated figure sighed as he slowly gestured to dismiss the other. "Very well. You have done admirably, Corchek. Soon, this world will be smouldering in ashes at our feet, and we will be free to start anew. Every pawn, in its place... The game is set. Checkmate is imminent. You may leave." 

The standing figure bowed once, then slowly left the chamber, his footsteps echoing dully off of the slick flagstone floor as the lights lining the hallway slowly shut themselves off as they detected the figure's absence.   


=====   


"Seeker Missiles!!!" 

"MISSILE LAUNCH!!!" 

"PACKAGE DELIVERY!!!" 

The quartet of ordnance slammed into a group of the fiendish medabots as their warheads detonated with destructive effect, ripping through armor plating and faceplates as several others of the demonic horde appeared on the scene to replace their fallen number. 

Ikki cursed. "Damnit! Getting to CLUSTER-001 is harder than I thought!" 

"Slam it to 'em, Ikki! The more of 'em come, the more notches I add to the stock of my revolver!!!" Metabee bellowed. 

"Dude, these things just keep on comin'!!" Rintaro yelled over his medawatch to Kantaroth. 

The assault that the group of schoolkids had planned out and launched on the wreck of CLUSTER-001 had proven to be difficult, despite the blitzkreig-style attack that they had staged. Although the initial wave of invaders had indeed ceased their attack moments before CLUSTER-001's descent, another, greater wave of invaders had soon made their appearance after the choking clouds of dust from the Robattle-Research space station's landing had settled, slowing down the initial barrage. Bodies of both humans and medabots, both civilian and from the Select Corp, littered the street, giving an almost surreal undertone to the battle that was raging. 

"Don't get discouraged now, Ikki! We're almost there!!" Koji urged over the communicator as he and Karin continued their own little spearhead into the DEM-types' ranks. 

"SHADOW SWORD!!!" Sumilidon's tri-bladed melee weapon cleanly sliced through another of the enemy as the STG-type continued to slowly progress up the surrounding slope of the crater formed by CLUSTER-001, following with a left hook into the torso of another black-armored medabot as he struggled through the charging mass of DEMs. 

Karin was busily playing a defensive game with Neutranurse. "NEUTRAWALL!!!" 

The shield barrier provided by the NUS-type medabot proved to be of great help, as most of the blows inflicted by the DEM-types were negated by the generated wall of energy. 

Erika was busily yelling into her medawatch as she took cover behind a nearby pile of crates. "Brass, show 'em what it means to be a girl! Short-shot!!" 

A hail of bullets blasted and bounced across the rubble-strewn street as the SLR-type medabot fired both of her wrist-mounted cannons into the approaching fiends. 

Meanwhile, the Screws were busily attacking another section of the crater wall, with limited success. The DEM-type medabots, as they continued to pour out of the sunken crater as if they were the denizens of some unknown hell, had caught the three medafighters and their medabots in a sunken ditch, turning their pitched robattle into a trench war. Shells and energy bolts bounced and sizzled around the three as the DEMs pinned the gang down, as they continued to yell and whimper through the firefight. 

As usual, Samantha was doing all the yelling. "Spyke, get over the wall and give me and Peppercat some cover fire!!" 

"But b-boss!!" Spyke whimpered, as he did all of the gang's whimpering. "It's dangerous out there!! Are you sure tha-" 

"Oh for God's sake! Lemme take care of 'em!" Sloan yelled as he gestured to Totalizer. "Totalizer, LASER!!!" 

Totalizer gave a battle cry as he rolled out of the ditch and aimed both of his arms without a moment's hesitation. "EAT PHOTONS!!!" There was a brief, yellowish flash as two high-powered beams literally sizzled through several of the DEM-types, leaving a stench of burnt electronics and metal. 

Samantha nodded in approval, then turned to Peppercat. "Okay, Peppercat, it's your move! Get on over there and give 'em a jolt!!" 

The CAT-type medabot bounded out of the ditch like some spring-loaded wheeljack as she slashed through several DEMs, sending them sizzling to the ground as Spyke and Crosserdog finally worked up enough nerve to stand up and out of the ditch and give Peppercat some cover fire. 

"CROSSERDOG, AIM RIFLE!!" Spyke screamed with all the desperate resolve of one staring death in the face. 

And so it went.   


=====   


Over on the south side, Kasumi and his gang of schoolmates were busily launching another assault on CLUSTER-001, pretty much with guns a-blazing. 

Kasumi threw command after command into his medawatch. "Granbeetle! Full power to all guns!!" The KBT-type medabot launched a volley of bullets as every single cannon that was on Granbeetle's body began firing round after round into a contingent of flying DEMs, sending one after another plummeting to the ground. 

Without warning, a clawed arm reached out from the ground, ripping into the orange-yellow KBT-type's left leg. "YEOOWCH!!" Granbeetle yelled as he looked down, first in consternation and then surprise, as several DEM-types began erupting upwards from the ground. "Damnit! Stop biting my ankles!!" the Hercules-Beetle type bellowed as he blasted the head of one of their number off and caved in the faceplate of another with an armored fist. 

Hiyori grinned. "So, they wanna play hide-and-seek, huh? We'll gladly be 'it'! Blazer-Multi, Variable Radar!!" The blue BLZ-type medabot began to hum as it began scanning the ground, exposing the burrowing medabots as if they were little more than moles plowing through someone's lawn. 

"I've got a lock! MACHINE-CANNON!!" Fubuki yelled as her LDB-type medabot raised its repeaters and began rattling as a burst of machine-gun fire shot down a set of burrowing DEMs. 

"Ashton, aim your cannon at the ground!!" Siden yelled as the grey GWF-type medabot slammed the barrel of its huge beam-breaker on its right arm into the dirt. With a blinding flash, and then a series of tortured shrieks and sizzles, the ground seemed to literally erupt as the discharging graviton energy fried another group of digging DEMs. 

Kasumi turned to Mizore and Goutetsu, who were busily smashing a separate group of ground units. "Mizore! Goutetsu! Take the outer wall! I don't want any of those things getting near our anchorpoints!!" 

The two nodded as they turned to their medabots. Mizore quickly yelled his orders through his medawatch. "Sikkuru, you heard him! Don't give 'em any room to get in!!" 

"SCISSOR CLAW!!!" The blue medabot yelled with gusto as his two hydraulic-powered claws began ripping through another group of DEMs, tearing through the armor plate and exposing the gleaming Tin-Pet underneath. 

"Bagstein, give 'em a beam blaster!!" Goutetsu yelled as he turned to his STN-type medabot. 

"SLAM IT!!" The orange tank-like medabot yelled as he raised both of his arms, firing blast after blast of fireball beams into the DEMs, sending them to the scrap heap. As if in reply to the STN-type's warcry, a dozen more DEM-types sprang out of the earth, clambering onto the disc-like head as they attempted to scratch and bash their way through Bagstein's thick armor. 

The entire scene looked like a detachment of infantry trying to overpower a piece of mobile artillery, as Bagstein frantically began swiping at the DEMs to try and brush them off of his armored bulk. 

"EAT RAILGUN!!!" The baritone voice of Helixbeetle rang out over the field as several bluish-green bolts of energy picked off the demonic medabots one by one. Kaito stood nearby, grinning at his handiwork as he gave a thumbs-up to Goutetsu. 

"C'mon, stop dawdling around! Give us some fire support!!" the brown-haired medafighter urged, as Makoru and Skyelder rushed in a second afterwards, dusting off their hands as they left a pile of wrecked DEMs in their wake. 

The heavyset medafighter nodded to the duo as he turned to Bagstein. "Thanks... Bagstein, fireball beam!" 

Another volley of fireball blasts shook the field as they slammed into another contingent. 

Makoru turned to Skyelder. "All right, girl, time to show 'em what you're made of! CRYSTAL HALBERD!!!" 

"KYI-YAAAAAH!!!" The VAL-type screamed in a frenzied battlecry as she swung wildly into another group of DEMs, either slicing cleanly through their ranks or leaving their leg-mounted joints and gyros frozen in place; unable to move. The Valkyrie-type charged forward even further, as she continued to battle her way up towards the wrecked space station, blocking blows and returing them with crushing effect using her ornate kite shield, and tossing the enemy left and right with every blow from her crystalline polearm. 

"TETRACANNON!!" A hail of energy bolts added to the already damaging effects of Skyelder's polearm swing, as Helixbeetle continued to blast into the oncoming swarm, taking on the units that were at a greater distance with his railgun, and wrecking the bodies of those that were standing closer with his four-barrelled cannon, as the shots bounced off the surrounding rubble. 

Kaito's grin at seeing the DEMs collapse before Helixbeetle's barrage suddenly faded as several more detachments suddenly sprang out of the rubble, weapons at the ready. 

"Damnit, it's like going through HEX Corp. all over again!" Kaito cursed as he continued to monitor the still-minor but accumulating damage that Helixbeetle was slowly sustaining in his brawling. Turning to Makoru, he quickly yelled a couple of terse commands as he fought off a couple of swooping DEMs. "Makoru, we need a clear corridor to CLUSTER-001! Get us an opening!!" 

"Got it!" Makoru yelled as she turned to the VAL-type medabot standing next to her. "Skyelder, use Evader! Try and get us an access point to the station!" 

Skyelder, in response, began doing backflips and somersaults over the heads of the DEMs, bopping a couple of armored heads in mid-flight as she finally landed horizontally on the walls of the space station. "I've got contact with the target, Makoru-" The rest of her sentence was interrupted as several DEMs lunged at her to defend their base while the VAL-type gave a few quick swings as if shooing some flies away; with limited success. "Makoru, I'm getting overwhelmed! I can't maintain my position!!" 

"That's fine, Skyelder, just get back before you get surrounded!!" Makoru sighed with a mixture of relief and disappointment as the VAL-type vaulted over the DEMs back towards her medafighter as she narrowly missed being clipped by several random shots aimed in the medabot's direction. 

Everywhere that Kaito and Makoru looked, it seemed that every DEM-type they brought to the dust was being replaced by four more. Kaito pulled out a walkie-talkie as he dialed in to Kasumi. 

"Kasumi, we're getting overwhelmed on your Three. Can you give us a hand?" 

Kasumi's voice burst through the speakers in a short spurt of static as he made reply. "Gotcha! I'm sending in reinforcements right now!!" There was another burst of static as the blue-haired teenager finished his sentence over the comm. "TRANSPORT KAISERBEETLE!!!" 

There was a blinding blue flash of light as the gigantic red KBT-type medabot descended onto the field, with all of its guns at the ready. "LOCKED AND LOADED!!" The crimson KBT-type yelled a mighty cry as he jammed one of his huge gun barrels through the torso of one DEM with a loud crunch, and fired off a volley in the direction of another, tearing through armor and Tin-Pet joints as the red medabot continued to literally berserk his way through the blackened mass of metal. 

"AUTOCANNON!!!" Several more DEMs collapsed where they stood as Kaiserbeetle shot another volley with its single-barrelled repeating cannon. "IT'S A WHEAT FIELD, AND I'M A MOWER!!!" 

Kasumi and Granbeetle suddenly appeared from behind a pile of rubble, panting and struggling through the wreckage as they hurried over. "I'd better keep an eye on you, my itchy-triggered friend," Kasumi muttered as he reconfigured his medawatch to handle both of his KBT-type medabots. "All right, both of you! TAG TEAM MULTI-SHOT!!" 

Granbeetle scrambled onto the gigantic, pointed head of Kaiserbeetle, much like a sailor taking aim with an artillery piece on the prow of a ship. "Hey, big guy, let's show 'em what it means to mess with us!!" 

Kaiserbeetle roughly nodded as he swatted down two more DEM-types. "LET'S ROCK! MEDACHANGE!!!" The huge red KBT-type suddenly flashed a brilliant white as its arms, head, and legs suddenly reconfigured themselves into the form of a hovering gunship armed with a gigantic three-barrelled autocannon, as Granbeetle took a handhold and began aiming with his single-barrelled right arm. 

"REVOLVER!!!" 

The two KBTs charged forwards in a hail of fire as rank after rank of DEMs fell to pieces from the intense onslaught. Whatever Kaiserbeetle didn't immediately cut down with his larger autocannon, Granbeetle picked off with his own wrist-mounted revolver.   


=====   


As a spearhead began forming on the southern sector, Ikki and the others finally reached the edge of the crater, where an access hatch peeked out from the rubble, scratched and dented . "Metabee, blow that door down! Seeker Missile!!" 

"MISSILE LAUNCH!!!" The warheads quickly slammed into the access hatch... And dissipated, as the door still stayed shut, without even a scratch. 

"K'so!!" Ikki cursed as he kicked and pounded at the door, as Metabee continued to blast away at the ever-countless DEMs that kept coming for more. Luminoustag and Sonicstag would have come in handy, but they had stayed behind at HEX Corp. in order to keep an eye on NAVI. 

"Damnit, we can't take much more of them!!" Erika cursed as she pointed out several more targets for Brass to fire at. Like it would do any good... 

"GRAARRGGH!!!" Sumilidon, on the other hand, continued to tangle with the DEMs in an up-close-and-personal fashion. 

KLAANGG!!" 

Several more DEMs fell to pieces from the STG-type's three-bladed sword, as another contingent launched themselves upwards from out of the rubble as Sumilidon turned to meet this new threat. 

"Damn him!!" Koji yelled as he turned to Ikki. "Ikki, we can't take on much more of this! Sumilidon's armor integrity's beginning to run low, and I don't think anyone else can take much more of this soon... How the hell do we get in!?" 

Ikki grunted as he got out of Metabee's way, as the KBT-type blasted off several more missiles. "KISS YOUR 'BOT GOODBYE!!!" 

Ikki turned to Erika. "How long do you think we can hold out under these conditions?" 

"Not more than half an hour, tops," Erika grumbled as she watched the meters on her watch continue to drop. 

"Great." 

And then, just as suddenly as CLUSTER-001 had landed onto Earth, the wave of medabots suddenly stopped. Ikki and the others did a double-take as the wave of DEMs began moving away, slowly marching off to 'God-only-knows-where'. Others suddenly fell apart into scraps of metal, as if the only thing that was holding them together were their sheer willpower. 

And as if to stun them even further, the door which Metabee had been attacking for a frustrated five minutes before, suddenly swooshed open as if it had been unlocked the entire time. Metabee narrowly eyed the open doorway that stood before them. 

"I don't like this, Ikki... We were up to our waists in those friggin' walking tin-cans, and now we're given the welcome mat? Something here stinks." 

Ikki nodded. "Right... I don't trust this either. All right, guys, let's move in, but keep your eyes peeled. Ragnarok just might be setting up a welcoming committee inside." 

The hallway seemed to echo with the footsteps of the kids walking inside, ringing off the metal plating... Like a death knell.   


=====   


The pair of yellow eyes intently watched with barely-contained interest, especially one figure in the group that entered the wrecked station. 

"So, I have lain eyes on you again... Andante-Kels. And, if my memory is accurate, we have an account to settle. A very LARGE account." 

There was a brief, rumbling noise, as if the voice was chuckling, and then there was silence. The ring continued to revolve unbroken.   
  
  


**To Be Continued...**


End file.
